Industrial associations urged to play pro-active role

Kolkata, Jan 29 (UNI) Minister of Small and Cottage industries Manabendra Mukherjee today urged both state government and the industrial associations to play a pro-active role in the developement of the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs).

Addressing a workshop on "Opportunities and challenges of globalisation:Focus SMEs", organised by the Trade Fair Committee, he said the SMEs possessed a huge potential for contributing towards the country's GDP.

He further said currently the total export from SMEs is 27.4 per cent.

Speaking on the occasion, he said globalisation had not only provided access to larger market and technology but had also exposed the domestic industry to global competition.

" The government and the industrial associations should join hand to turn our products globally competitive in terms of design and technology, " he added.

The government should encourage "cluster of industries" or group of SMEs than individual industries.

Emphasising on the importance of proper infrastructure, he said the government should provide long term subsidy to the industries in the form of infrastructure.

He said, " Short term subsidy in the form of tax waiver can give temporary financial relief to the industries but infrastructure and manpower would benefit the cluster of SMEs as a whole. " Drawing example from China's economic developement, he said the Indian government should not allow the global players to capture Indian market.

Other dignitaries, who spoke on the occasion, were Secretary of small Scale and cottage industries G D Gautama, Additional Secretary and Developement Commissioner of Small Scale Industries Jawahar Sircar.

UNI