Vibrant Gujarat '17 themed 'Gujarat Connecting India to World'

Ahmedabad, Jun 11: Gujarat Connecting India to the World will be the theme of Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit, to be held in January, 2017, a top government official said today.

"Gujarat boasts of being one of the leading states in manufacturing sector and is recognised as India's growth engine.

We are going much beyond this time as our motto for next Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit to be held on January 10-13, 2017 will be 'Gujarat Connecting India to the World'," said Arvind Agarwal, Additional Chief Secretary of state's Industries and Mines department.

"We have reached a stage where we can actually be the window to many foreign investors coming to India and for Indian states to know how to woo the world. We believe that because of its industry and economy, Gujarat can take a leadership role to connect India to the world," he said.

Agarwal was speaking at the 6th MSME Convention organised by the All India Management Association (AIMA) here.

"Gujarat is already a national leader in 15 out of 25 sectors identified by the Centre for its Make in India programme," he said, adding that the state is trying to strengthen other six sectors, while the remaining four do not apply to the state.

Agarwal said that the state has taken reasonably good benefit of Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), which was introduced nearly a year ago to support funding needs of MSMEs, with Gujarat-based micro enterprises having made available Rs 60 crore of loan so far.

"To boost further investment in the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSME) sector, the state government is considering ways to create framework to attract private equity funds in small businesses.

For the first time, a state government has started the concept of promoting startups at the idea stage itself," he said.

Under the new Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum scheme, which is meant to promote ease of doing business for MSMEs, as many as 42,800 MSMEs have been registered till March 2016, with total number of MSMEs registered with the state government from 2006-2015 being about 3.76 lakh, which is the second highest after Tamil Nadu, he added.

Of the 42,800 MSMEs, about 33,000 are in micro sector, 9,500 in small sector, and 430 in medium sector, he said.

Gujarat's biennial event 'Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit' is the pet initiative of former state Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

PTI