International buyers showing interest in Bengal's products: Minister

About 40 international buyers have shown interests in sourcing products costing Rs 113 crore from West Bengal's artisans while Swedish furniture retailer IKEA also wishes to buy goods made of natural fibre, a Minister said on Tuesday.

"About 40 international buyers have shown interest in B2B meetings to source products costing Rs 113 crore from our artisans," Finance Minister Amit Mitra said at the MSME conclave here.

He said: "West Bengal is a big producer of bamboo. I had detailed discussions on the IKEA's interest in the state's products."

The Swedish furniture retailer has shown "expression of interest for buying natural fibre products" totalling Rs 2,000 crore, subject to its quality stipulation, a statement said.

In order to provide credit facilities to micro, small and medium enterprises, the state has set a target of extending loans of Rs 80,000 crore to these units in the next two years, he said, adding that about Rs 50,000 crore of credit target was set for the current fiscal.

The state has earmarked 2,000 acres of land for setting up 30 MSME industrial parks in various districts and aims at creating one lakh entrepreneurs in two years, he said.

Several MoUs during the two-day conclave were signed for the promotion and export of handicraft, leather, apparel, and gem and jewellery products from the state, Mitra said.

The Engineering Export Promotion Council of India also signed an MoU with the West Bengal State Export Promotion Society to set up an export facilitation centre in the engineering sector.

There are 23 small and medium enterprises listed in the SME platforms of key Indian stock exchanges and together have raised more than Rs 250 crore from capital market via Initial Public Offer.

About 41 SMEs of the state are expected to raise over Rs 300 crore from the market via IPO, the statement added.

--IANS

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