IPICOL, XIMB to set up Project Advisory Centre

The state owned Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Ipicol) and XIMB today inked an agreement for setting up this Centre. Ashok Meena, managing director, Ipicol and P T Joseph, director, XIMB signed the documents. It is a direct initiative under the UNIDO technical assistance programme in Orissa (DFID funded) in collaboration with Ipicol.

The Centre named as TOPAX will be devoted to the promotion of SMEs and new enterprises in the form of identification of the entrepreneurial potential and helping them to set up new ventures. It will help the industry, both existing and the prospective ones with services like preparation of the company's project profile, providing need based advisory services, project evaluation, formulation training, training-counseling for investors, skill development and entrepreneurship development.

It will take up capacity building programmes on the UNIDO project development cycle model for the benefit of various institutions engaged in the support system like Ipicol, Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi), private sector banks, non-government organisations (NGOs) and other state sponsored development institutions.

Besides, it is expected to network with international institutions for fund raising and develop a wide network of contacts at the international level which will promote the entrepreneurs of the state. Potential entrepreneurs interested to start their own business, existing entrepreneurs planning to improve performance and investors from outside the state requiring handholding support to incubate their investment in Orissa are likely to benefit from this Centre.

Speaking on the occasion Meena said, the entrepreneurs approaching the district industries centre (DIC) and Ipicol were often found to be lacking in the capacity building like preparation of the detailed project report (DPR) and project profile. A steering committee will be formed to make the Centre sustainable, he pointed out.

Emphasising on the necessity of putting in a policy framework for making the industrialisation sustainable, Ashok Dalwai, commissioner-secretary, steel and mines (Orissa government) said, Orissa will have to transcend from primary to heavy industry and engineering sectors. SME sector will be the defined sector in the industrialisation process of the state, he added.

Industry minister Biswa Bhushan Harichandan said, Orissa is now a happening state and TOPAX will be able to provide knowledge support to the SMEs in the state. Chinmoy Basu, secretary, industry, Orissa government suggested the Centre should rope in some banking partners to facilitate project implementation.

P T Joseph, director, XIMB said, the project development centre will meet the project specific needs of the entrepreneurs. Alejandro Vera, advisor, UNIDO, B N Palai, General manager, Ipicol and Mahesh Misra, representative of DFID spoke on the occasion.