Facilitated by access to ICTs, Indian exports of telecommunications, computer and information services, as well as of other business services have more than doubled in the past ten years, to reach USD 109 billion in 2016, or 67% of total Indian services exports. Such trade is of strong and growing interest to both developing and developed countries, as the sector represents a strategic component of the evolving digital economy.
Existing trade in services statistics do not allow for the identification of all services that are ICT-enabled, or digitally delivered.
After Costa Rica, India is the second country to implement the new survey of ICT-enabled services exports in July - December 2017. The survey will be administered by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS) of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
A preparatory and stocktaking meeting will be organized by UNCTAD and DGCIS on 13-14 July 2017 in Kolkata, India, to discuss and fine-tune survey implementation details.
The survey questionnaire was developed by UNCTAD in collaboration with the Inter-Agency Task Force on International Trade Statistics (TFITS), as well as experts from Costa Rica, Egypt, India and Thailand. It builds on the definition of ICT-enabled services approved by the United Nations Statistical Commission in March 2016.
More transparent, comparable and comprehensive statistical data in this area are needed to help governments design, implement and monitor ICT-related policies, taking into account the recent growth of ICT-enabled services.
This project is supported financially by the Government of Sweden.
