Bhubaneswar: Odisha has been placed at the fifth position in the NITI Aayog's Export Preparedness Index (EPI)-2020, which was released today. The state has secured a score of 58.23 in the index.

Gujarat (75.19) occupied the top spot followed by Maharashtra (75.14) and Tamil Nadu (64.93) at the 2nd and 3rd position, respectively.

"Odisha has taken measures to create an enabling environment to attract businesses. For instance, Odisha has been rated as the most cost-competitive state judged by the criteria of the cost of setting up and running a business," the report said.

"It has been observed that the state has dwelt on ensuring the lowest costs for key parameters: wage rate of skilled labour, industrial power tariff and land costs. This is reflected in its score of 92.08 in Ease of Doing Business," it said.

"Odisha has performed well in terms of providing trade support. The state has conducted 24 capacity building workshops to provide exposure to traders which guides the latter into adopting best practices in exports. Furthermore, it’s one of the top five states in terms of strengthening its research and development infrastructure. This has put the state at an advantage among others in this pillar," the report added.

The structure of the EPI includes 4 pillars –Policy; Business Ecosystem; Export Ecosystem; Export Performance – and 11 sub-pillars –Export Promotion Policy; Institutional Framework; Business Environment; Infrastructure; Transport Connectivity; Access to Finance; Export Infrastructure; Trade Support; R&D Infrastructure; Export Diversification; and Growth Orientation.