New initiatives for the promotion of MSMEs
April 30, 2008
New Delhi: The Central Government supplements the efforts of the States/UTs by providing supportive measures through schemes/initiative to enhance the competitiveness of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and enable them to grow and generate more and more employment. The measures include ongoing schemes as well as new schemes under the Package for Promotion of Micro and Small Enterprises announced in Lok Sabha on 27th February 2007.
Some of the new initiatives for the promotion and development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are:
1. Scheme for financial assistance to select management/business schools and technical institutes to conduct tailor made courses,
2. Scheme for financial assistance to five select universities / colleges to run 1200 entrepreneurial clubs.
3. Rajiv Gandhi Udyami Mitra Yojana to assist potential 1.5 lakh first-generation entrepreneurs in completion of various formalities and tasks necessary for setting up of their enterprises and to facilitate them in completing the required formalities during the course of Eleventh Five Year Plan.
4. Scheme for Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) by merger of existing REGP and PMRY Schemes (proposed)
5. Package for developing infrastructure for Khadi Institutions including nursing fund for weak institutions.(proposed)
6. Workshed Scheme for Khadi Artisans
7. Scheme for enhancing productivity and competitiveness of Khadi industries and artisans. (proposed), and
8. Scheme for rejuvenation, modernization and technological upgradation of coir industry.
Moreover, 10-point initiatives under the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme (NMCP) have been announced to be implemented during Eleventh Plan period in MSME clusters in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
This information was given by the Minister of Micro, small & Medium Enterprises, Shri Mahabir Prasad in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
India willing to strengthen trade and investment with trading partners: Kamal Nath
April 28, 2008
New Delhi: While addressing General Debate of the UNCTAD XII Ministerial Conference at Accra (Ghana), Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry said that India is willing to strengthen trade and investment linkages with its trading partners through its knowledge advantage, its pool of skilled resources, its young population, its potential of being a manufacturing hub and a base for high-end R&D. India’s regional and inter-regional trading agreements, partnerships and economic ties with other countries of the South also form an important element in India’s development diplomacy. “To further promote the South-South trade, we are committed to work towards exploring the full potential of the GSTP. We are looking forward for a successful conclusion of the third round of negotiations which takes into account the views of all its members”, the Minister added. The Conference was also attended by Shri G.K. Pillai, Commerce Secretary; senior officials from the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, External Affairs and Ambassador & Permanent Representative to World Trade Organisation/PMI-Geneva.
Shri Kamal Nath said that India is fully supportive of having a focus on Africa which provides all of us with an opportunity to highlight our contributions to the development of the continent and our partnership with Africa for mutual benefit. “We would be willing to work on developing present as well as future corpus of projects/activities with Africa, not only with individual countries, also with regional African Organisations as well”, he stressed. The Minister stated that India and Africa are building a genuine partnership based on the principles of mutual benefit, mutual respect and equality.
While highlighting the market access initiatives, Shri Kamal Nath stated: “We recognize that for the LDCs, especially those in the Africa region need market access for ensuring the development dimensions of international trade. It is in this regard that only a few days ago, in the India-Africa Summit in New Delhi, which most of the dignitaries present here attended, we announced our decision to implement a Duty Free Tariff Preference Scheme for all the LDCs on a non-reciprocal basis. On 85% of the total items, we will be bringing our duties to zero in a time frame of five years and on additional 9% items there will be fixed tariff preferences. This Scheme would be implemented from 1st May, 2008 and we are sure that the African LDCs would reap the benefit of this scheme to their advantage”.
On the multilateral trade front, Shri Kamal Nath said: “The Doha Development Agenda is one of the most ambitious attempts at ensuring that the issue of development is firmly at the core of the multilateral trading system. The fundamental principles of the multilateral trading system, namely, non-discrimination, predictability, stability and transparency are fully supportive of development. Since development issues lie at the heart of the current Round of Negotiations, the key to the Negotiations, therefore, should be, firstly, to ensure that this Round delivers for development and secondly, helps developing countries to integrate into the world trading system and take advantage of opportunities since many developing countries also need assistance in building up their capacity to make use of multilateral trade liberalization. Given the present interface that exists between national development strategies and international process and disciplines, we firmly believe that there is a need for creating an international enabling environment that is conducive to the growth of developing countries in a manner that best suits their circumstances and national priorities. Therefore, within the framework of international disciplines, each country must have the policy space to choose what is most appropriate for its circumstances and for the overall welfare of its people”.
Earlier, Shri Kamal Nath had also had various bilateral meetings with the Trade Ministers of UK, China, Pakistan, Argentina, Sweden, Senegal, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Thailand and Mali and discussed various matters including the bilateral relations and economic cooperation. During the course of the discussions, he informed the Ministers that FDI policies in India have been further liberalised and many new sectors have been opened recently and added that infrastructure sector in India is an opportunity for investment.
SMEs to tap alternate finance sources: CII
April 20, 2008
New Delhi: According to a business outlook survey conducted by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector in the country will be increasingly looking at non-traditional sources for financing needs.
A CII release said that, 10% of the respondents are preferring capital markets, 12% used credit guarantee schemes while 8% are turning to venture capital as an alternate source of finance.
As many as 52% respondents saw the credit guarantee fund launched by SIDBI for guaranteeing loans up to Rs 50 lakh as a substitute for collateral security.
The survey also found that high interest rates, collateral requirements of banks and financial institutions as well as bank paperwork, combined with bureaucracy remained key financial obstacles.
Significantly, 34% of the MSMEs said in the survey that they are likely to overtake large companies by 2020. Another 49% felt that by 2015 they will graduate in to medium industries.
Also, 81% of the SMEs, who took part in the survey supported the formulation of a procurement preference policy for the SMEs for procurement by government and government aided agencies.
Lamy signals start of “horizontal process” in negotiations
April 20, 2008
Director-General Pascal Lamy, on 17 April 2008, said at an informal meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee that “time is coming soon to take our work to a higher level and to begin drawing together the threads both within and across the two modalities issues (agriculture and industrial tariffs) as mandated in Hong Kong”. He said the “horizontal process will start at Senior Official level, in order to prepare properly for the Ministerial involvement which is likely to be needed at a later stage”.