In a bid to tap the vast possibilities in small and medium scale sector, including handicrafts and cottage industries, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday set a road map for the State’s growth trajectory asking prospective investors to invest in the sector and urging those who are already entrenched to think big and capture the world market.
Inaugurating a 2-day Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) conclave, the Chief Minister said her Government was more than eager to facilitate MSME enterprise in the State as “big industries can be very few in number and cannot be expected to generate the desired number of jobs. It is at this point that the small and medium sector can chip in with their ability not only to provide jobs but also to tap the national as well as international market.”
Representatives of about 5,000 MSMEs from various districts of Bengal as well as other States and foreign countries attended the programme interacting directly with the Chief Minister and suggesting their views to be accepted immediately.
Banerjee who heard problems of a number of entrepreneurs and directed her senior officers to solve them immediately said “today Bengal is number one in small and medium scale industrial output. I want her to become number in the world tomorrow and for that we are ready to walk many more extra miles,” calling upon even the large-scale industries to take some interest in the growth of the SSIs.
Known for providing instant solutions to problems the Chief Minister promptly divided the State into synergy zones directing the district magistrates and secretaries to take up the issues of the investors and solve them duly.
Referring to the negative impact of demonetization and a wrongly implemented GST she said “demonetization and GST has created a slump in the market rendering a large number of people jobless. It is at this juncture that the MSMEs can come in handy to provide an impetus to themselves, the economy and the market.”
For this “one needs imagination and plans to go about it. We can tag tourism industry with it and make the entire thing a mega success with the help of nationalized and other banks as also the State cooperative banks which can be used for providing loans to the new entrepreneurs,” she maintained.
MSMEs have been a major success ever since the Chief Minister launched it in Bengal. Today the State has 52,69814 MSME units with 11.62 per cent share of the overall number in the country.
The total amount of loans extended to medium enterprises during 2016-17 financial year was Rs 5,851 crore. Incidentally it is under Banerjee’s rule that the decaying Tantuja (handloom) a State owned unit have once again started to make profits.