CII to set up 15 SME clusters in southern states

As part of the industry cluster initiative for the small and medium enterprise sector, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)’s southern region is planning to launch 15 new clusters across south in 2009. The industry body had started the initiative in 2004.

Chairman of CII Southern Region C R Swaminathan said so far around 93 companies from the southern states benefited through the cluster approach, which was launched to improve the internal competitiveness and gain sustainable advantage in the business. It has generated recurring savings to the tune of 70 crore every year in the region.

In Tamil Nadu, the CII is planning to set up a cluster in Madurai for textile, rubber, chemical and food processing. Around 23 companies have evinced interest, he said.

Similarly, two clusters each in Tiruchy and Erode and one in Puducherry would come up.

In Andhra Pradesh, the focus will be on original equipment manufacturers and in Kerala it would be on rubber units. CII is looking at launching the clusters in three months, said B T Bangera, chairman, cluster forum, CII-SR.

The SMEs encounter stumbling blocks in accessing competent cost-effective training programme on an extended time basis of 15-18 months. It is this aspect that makes cluster approach a viable tool as the handholding sessions provide group learning, which automatically results in sharing the training cost among the members to a very viable level.

Automobile components manufacturers, machine tool manufacturers, special purpose machines manufacturers, foundries, tool and die makers, and food industry are some of the sectors of the clusters.