Participation from 100 countries expected
The Government seeks to enhance strategic cooperation and develop synergies to strengthen multilateral relationships between all stake holders, tap the potential for services exports and increase FDI inflow through the 5th edition of GES 2019 to be held 26-28 November 2019 in Bengaluru.
GES 2019 will host focused knowledge sessions on key Champion Services Sectors and will cater to many B2B, B2G and B2C meetings with participation from 100 countries.
The GES aims to engage industry and Governments across the world and to promote greater exchange of trade in services between India and rest of the world, said the Commerce and Industry Ministry on 10 Nov 2019.
It is by Department of Commerce in association with Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The event, to boost the Indian services bar in the global arena by exploring 12 Champion Services Sectors, is seeking investments and partnerships in strategic areas like aviation and space programme, infrastructure, telecom projects, financial management and accounting, content, design, media distribution and outsourcing publishing work, Intellectual Property management services and environmental/ social impact assessment.
In GES 2019 SEPC is also looking to promote eSports. The eSports industry is expected to grow rapidly and in 2017 worldwide revenue generated in eSports market amounted to US$655 million. The market is expected to generate close to US$1.8 billion in revenue by 2022.
The regular monthly salaries of average progamers may range from US1,000 to US5,000 apart from the money that they win from prizes.
There were 270 million global fans of eSports in 2016 and the number is expected to grow to 495 million in 2020.
For GES 2019 India has invited eSports federations from several countries. Participants are expected from Indonesia, Vietnam, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Korea.
In order to attract more players in the services sector India has liberalized its e-visa regime in three categories: e-tourist, e-medical and e-business to promote these sectors.
Multiple entry tourist and business visas for a period of five years are now available to nationals of all countries for the benefit of medical tourists. Separate immigration counters and facilitation desks have been provided at six Indian international airports of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Department of Commerce has been endeavoring to develop exports by incentivizing the service exporters through the Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) which is an incentive scheme introduced in the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015-2020.
Under SEIS incentives to services exporters during the FY 2018-19 stood at Rs. 4262.80 crore. Rewards under SEIS are provided in the form of Duty Credit Scrips, valid for 24 months from the date of issue, that can be used for payment of basic and additional customs duty on goods imported and the Duty Credit Scrips are freely transferable.
Therefore, if the exporter cannot use the Duty Credit Scrip they can be sold in open market. GST rate for transfer/ sale of scrips has been reduced to 0 from 12%. fiinews.com