Madhya Pradesh must look to frame policies for MSMEs to enable them to grow into large companies, which can compete globally, a senior official of the Asian Development Bank said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Madhya Pradesh Global Investors Summit (MP GIS) 2025, Asian Development Bank (ADB) Deputy Country Director Aarti Mehra complimented the state for its achievements in tackling poverty and standout performance in agriculture, specially in organic farming.

"It (Madhya Pradesh) has also done really well in tackling poverty. It is among the fast improving states of the country. Multidimensional poverty (in the state) has declined between 2015 and 2021 at a dramatic rate of 15.9 per cent and that's really commendable when you compare it to the national average of 9.9 per cent," she said.

On the MSME sector, Mehra noted that MP has enacted a number of policies to deal with challenges faced by these micro enterprises, including access to finance.

"While every policy that supports MSMEs is fantastic, the state must keep its eye on getting these infants to grow into giants," she said.

Pointing to a trend witnessed in a number of states in India, she said MSMEs continue to be MSMEs even 10 years after inception.

"Given where the state (MP) is now, and having the benefit of the experience of other states, I would urge that policies be made to actually incentivise these MSMEs to grow into giants by connecting them to supply chains by providing good access to financing and by good regulation," Mehra said.

She cited examples from other states such as Rajasthan, where in 2015 THE MSME policy was tweaked resulting in the size of MSMEs in the state growing larger.

There are many benefits of growing MSMEs into big corporations, she said.

"They can benefit from economies of scale and most importantly, larger companies pay employees more.

They are more resilient to economic downturns, and they are just more able to compete in the global landscape," Mehra said.

The senior ADB official also highlighted that the multilateral lending body has been associated with MP since 1999 and it has worked across all sectors ranging from transport to urban governance and education.