In his press statement, Ramachandran said that in order to cope with emerging challenges in the power sector and in view of its improved debt-equity ratio, BHEL can now garner large resources externally to support its marketing operations for viable projects, both in domestic and global markets.

During 1997-98, BHEL registered a profit before tax of Rs 1,022 crore and during the current year, the company has secured orders worth Rs 5,853 crore, bringing the outstanding order-book position to over Rs 10,000 crore.

Ramachandransaid that the company is continuously reviewing its options and adopting measures to ehance competitiveness by improving internal project-execution capabilities through time and cost reduciton, better project management and quality improvement.

BHEL's export turnover (including deemed exports) was Rs 1,784 crore in 1997-98, a 38 per cent growth over the pervious year. Ramachandran said that joint ventures with Siemens AG for performance improvement of old fossil fuel power plants and with General Electric (GE) for repair/servicing of old turbines will help the company garner a major share in this emerging business.

He said BEHL has identified markets for exporting its products and projects such as the Middle East despite the international market being subdued. The company is also looking at newer markets like Africa and Central Asia.

Utilisation of government-to-government lines of credit for setting up projects abroad will provide BEHL with the much-needed references and pave way for enhancing projectexports, Ramachandran said. BHEL, he said, has been adopting a combination of sales-aid-financing options like arranging financial packages on limited scale, offering equity participation and lease-financing.

While internal resources generated by the company would be sufficient to finance its modernisation plans and working-capital requirements, the company proposes to utilise its resource-raising capabilities to support marketing operations by providing/syndicating finances for viable projects along with supply of equipment and services, he added.