Tamil Nadu will soon emerge as the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) capital, not of India, but the whole of Asia, according to Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Making an announcement in the legislative Assembly on Monday, Jayalalithaa said her Government’s objective was to increase the competitiveness of the MSMEs and start a research on the sector on international level.
“Our aim is to do a comparative study of competitiveness of the MSMEs in Tamil Nadu with that of other countries. Based on the findings of this research we will do whatever has to be done to raise the standards of the MSMEs in Tamil Nadu,” said the Chief Minister.
Jayalalithaa said the MSME units in Tamil Nadu employ 60 lakh workers. “We have 11 lakh MSME units which have made an investment of `67,000 crore. Tamil Nadu is the leader in this sector,” said Jayalalithaa.
“We want to make Tamil Nadu the MSME capital of Asia. Hence, we have decided to draft a new MSME policy for the State,” she said. Jayalalithaa also announced that a multi-storey industrial complex exclusively for the MSME would be built in Chennai at an investment of `100 crore.
The plan to have a research on the functioning of MSME units in other countries has been widely welcomed by the industry. “This will throw more lights into the facilities enjoyed by such units in other countries. For example, we in India do not get bank loans or financial assistance for the sector. Once it is known how other countries offer incentives and packages to MSME units, we hope the same would be made available to us too,” said an entrepreneur in Chennai.