To make the ‘UP Global Investors’ Summit’ to be held in January next year a success, the Yogi Adityanath government 2.0 will showcase the micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) bandwidth of Uttar Pradesh. The government has set a target of attracting investment of Rs 10 lakh crore from domestic and multinational companies at the mega event.
As per the data available with the MSME department, there are about 90 lakh MSMEs in the state. The MSME sector alone contributes nearly 60 per cent to UP’s annual industrial output and is the second-largest employment provider after agriculture and allied activities. To build momentum, the state will organise roadshows in major countries, including the US, the UK, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Sweden, Singapore, the Netherlands, Israel, France, Germany, South Korea, Mauritius, Russia, and Australia.
Detailing the broad strokes of the summit, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed top officials to dedicate an entire day to MSMEs to underline the importance of the sector for job creation and galvanising the state’s socio-economic growth.
The roadmap assumes significance in the backdrop of the state seeing it become a $1-trillion economy.
The UP government will hold dialogues with the Netherlands, Japan, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Mauritius, Thailand, Nepal, Belgium and Sweden to make them the summit ‘partners’.
In fact, a few nations had collaborated with UP as ‘partner nations’ at the summit in 2018 when the state had netted nearly Rs 4.68 lakh crore of investment proposals. The state has claimed that projects totalling Rs 3 lakh crore have already been launched.
The state government is also working on a multi-pronged strategy to bolster the state’s MSME sector. It includes facilitating the sector to market their products through popular e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon.
The state negotiates for easier and cheaper working capital loans for its MSMEs, especially under the purview of the One District, One Product (ODOP) Scheme — seen as a transformational step forward towards realising the true potential of a district, fuel economic growth, and generate employment and rural entrepreneurship — from banks and other financial institutions.
ODOP is aimed at reviving and fortifying the traditional and indigenous industries of the state across 75 districts. The state government has tied up with Paytm to digitise the MSME landscape. In June, the MSME and Export Promotion department had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Paytm parent One97 Communications to offer digital payments and lending solutions to state MSMEs.
The government is looking to more than double MSME exports to Rs 3 lakh crore in the next five years. The Covid-19 pandemic notwithstanding, the state’s merchandise exports surged 30 per cent to Rs 1.4 lakh crore in 2021-22.
According to Additional Chief Secretary, MSME and Export Promotion, Navneet Sehgal, ODOP has turned out to be a grand success story for the state’s industrial firmament. “We are leaving no stones unturned to augment the export of the ODOP basket as well as double the employment and self-employment opportunities in the state,” he added.