Speaking at an award function organised by the engineering export promotion council on Wednesday, Maran cautioned that the good recovery in 1999-2000 should not "blind us to the fact that our export performance is greatly dependent on global trends". The impact on India was even greater as the bulk of exports was at the lower end of the value chain, he stated.

In all, the minister presented 97 export excellence awards in various categories including all India trophy for top exporters of eight companies-Tisco, Shree Uma Foundries, Metro Exporters, SAIL, Ircon, Tata Projects and Bhed. Thirty exporters received highest exporters trophy and 59 received certificates of export excellence.

He noted that engineering exports occupied a very important place in the country's export effort as they projected to the world that India's capabilities extended far beyond the traditional sectors.

In this context, he said that he was aware that a large number of engineering exporters were from the SSI sector. Given their "can do" attitude, he was confident that they would meet the emerging challenges of globalisation effectively and would protect their market shares in various countries and would also build on them. The government was fully committed to addressing the industry's requirements of access to technology and funding to enable it to compete with the best in the world, he assured.

The minister said he was happy to learn of the recent EEPC initiative in organising the Euro-India conference on sub-contracting collaborations. Exports of engineering goods could not be a one shot affair and progress could only be sustained on the basis of long-term relationship with buyers and a shared regard for zero deficit quality.