Naveen asks mega projects to promote MSMEs

The Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today called upon the large and medium industries in the state to promote the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

A healthy and vibrant MSME sector creates more employment, leads to development of local entrepreneurship and helps in removing regional imbalance through promotion of industrial activities, Patnaik said.

Addressing the seminar on ‘Development of downstream industries by way of value addition’, organised by the Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Ipicol), he said, the setting up of large and mega industries in steel and aluminium sectors has created new opportunities for processing the metal produced by these industries. However, to exploit this opportunity, the large industries need to come forward and play the role of catalysts.

“It is imperative for the large industries to do a detailed analysis and suggest the kind of products that can be produced by the downstream industries. They should also provide suitable infrastructural support for setting up of new metal based industries along with preparation of a time bound action plan”, Pataik added.

Stating that there is a need to set up suitable industrial estates and parks by the large industries where small scale industries can come and set up their units, he said, the government and industry have to come together to plan and create such infrastructure in locations like Jharsuguda, Angul, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Dhenkanal, Kalinganagar, Paradeep, Balasore, Rayagada and other viable locations. Quoting from the report of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the chief minister said, it placed Orissa among the top two states in the country in terms of value of total projects under implementation. This is indicative of the success of Orissa's strategy in creating a business environment which is investment friendly. Industry secretary Saurabh Garg said, as a measure to promote inclusive growth, this is the beginning of a series of interaction between the MSMEs and the large and medium units.