A Staff Reporter
Dimapur, February 26
The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) which has been playing an important role in socio-economic development and providing easy finance and technology for entrepreneurs has announced 6 crore rupees for Nagaland to complete its Khadi Plaza project and asked the state to facilitate proper functioning in this sector.
Speaking at the inaugural function of the ‘Regional Conclave of MSME’ at Rhododendron Hall, Police Complex Chumukedima on Friday, Union Minister for MSME Kalraj Mishra expressed the hope that Dimapur Conclave 2016 would help the ministry in evaluating the performance of schemes as implemented. He is also confident that interaction with State governments and associations of NE region and other stakeholders would help government plan and execute various policies and programmes aimed at the sustained development of MSME sector.
The participating states at the conclave are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
Emphasizing on the significance of MSME, Kalraj said, the primary responsibility of promotion and development of MSMEs is of the State governments while the role of the Ministry of MSME and its organizations is to assist the States in their efforts to encourage entrepreneurship, employment and livelihood opportunities and enhance the competitiveness of MSMEs in the changed economic scenario. The implementation of policies and various programmes/ schemes for providing infrastructure and support services to MSMEs’ is undertaken through its attached office, namely MSME Development Institutes underlined Kalraj.
“During 2015-16 (till 31st January, 2016) 29174 projects have been approved, which generated total employment of 2, 11,601. Out of this, 5092 projects have been approved for the 8 States of northeast region (including Sikkim) and these are expected to generate 20639 employments” articulated the Union Minister for MSME.
Drawing attention on the practice of MSME, he underlined that delayed payment to Micro and Small enterprise is dealt under Chapter V, Section 15-24, of the Micro Small and Medium Enterprise Development (MSMED) Act, 2006. In case of any dispute regarding payment, any party to the dispute, may make a reference to the Micro and Small Enterprise Facilitation Council (MSEFC), established by the State Govt. under the Act. Every reference made to MSEFC shall be decided within a period of ninety days from the date of making such a reference. And the Union Minister stating this, requested upon the States/UTs to facilitate the proper functioning of the Facilitation Council (MSEFC) for the benefit of MSME sector.
He further added that ministry has recently launched a web portal “Digital Employment Exchange” for industries. The digital employment exchange is in line with the Prime Minister’s vision of Digital India wherein through this employment exchange for industries, job seekers can find employers and vice versa.
MSME sector contributes around 8% of GDP, 44% of the total exports and around 45% of the manufacturing output, stated Kalraj.
The Union Minister further stated that the Ministry was committed to do something for Northeast and remarked that without development of the region India will not develop.
Chief Minister TR Zeliang pointed out that the statistics indicated that MSME sector in the northeast states accounts for only 1.78% of the Total Gross Output of the country with less than 2% of the national level fixed investments going into it. There are multiple factors leading to this low level of output and investment in the MSME sector of the region. The lack of basic infrastructure, both physical and financial is the constraining factors which needs to be addressed and the major challenge would be developing and enabling ecosystem for the MSME sector to grow in the region.
Zeliang articulated that though the regional conclave of MSME is most suitable to take awareness of the potentials of the region, the schemes and programs drawn out on all India bases were often difficult to replicate or implement in the region.
He also pointed out that the northeastern states have not been able to seize the benefits of the economy booster MSME sector. Therefore, the chief minister opined for a more intensive effort in terms of formulating northeast region specific schemes and programs in the MSME sector or modification of the existing MSME schemes to the specific requirements of Northeast region for better results.
Parliamentary Secretary for Industries and Commerce Amenba Yaden underlined that the state has under submission a project proposal for construction of Khadi Plaza at a project cost of R.6.18 crore where the office of Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has agreed to fund earlier. However the legislator said that in view of the scheme revision the project could not be funded till date. Stressing on the benefits of MSME Ministry Yaden said that Nagaland was still unfortunate not able to take advantage of the schemes. He therefore underscored that the PMEGP scheme of the Ministry if implemented suitably will help solve the problem of unemployment in the state. However he pointed out that issue of delay in the sanction of loans by banks under financing the projects and correspondingly the delay in release of the Margin money to the banks are limiting the successful implementation of the scheme. Pointing out that about Rs.8.50 crores of Margin Money claims are pending release to the banks against sanctions released by the banks in the state Amenba stressed on the need to address the issues and enhance the physical and financial target allocation to the state as the current targets are inadequate and cannot meet the requirement of the state.
The Regional Conclave of MSME’s was attended by Mizoram Minister for Industries PU HJ.Rohluna along with his dignitaries, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Tripura.
The Chief Minister was accompanied by his council of legislators Khekaho, Tovihoto, Hukavi Zhimomi, Levi Rengma, Kipili Sangtam, Tokheho Yepthomi and Dr.T.M.Lotha.
The Union Minister will visit local MSME units tomorrow to get the first hand experience and knowledge about the implementation of the schemes at the ground level.
