Cabinet clears signing of pact between India, Sweden on MSMEs

The government today approved signing of an agreement between India and Sweden to promote cooperation in the MSME sector.

The cooperation opens up doors of new opportunities for the domestic MSME sector by way of new markets, joint ventures, sharing of best practices and technology collaborations, among others.

"The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its approval for signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Sweden on cooperation in the field of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises," an official statement said.

The objective of the MoU is to promote cooperation between the MSMEs of the two countries.

It provides a structured framework and enabling environment to the MSME sector in the two countries to understand each other's strengths, markets, technologies and policies.

The MoU also contains an agreement to enable respective MSMEs to participate in each other's trade fairs/exhibitions and to exchange business delegations, to understand policy and explore markets so that joint ventures, tie-ups and technology transfer among others could take place.

The agreement, however, does not contain or involve any financial, legal or political commitment on the part of either party. In no case does it attract any financial liability on the part of the government.

The MSME Ministry has so far entered into long-term agreements for cooperation in the MSME sector with ministries or organisations of 17 countries namely, Tunisia, Romania, Rwanda, Mexico, Uzbekistan, Lesotho, Sri Lanka, Algeria, Sudan, Cote d'lvoire, Egypt, Botswana, South Korea, Mozambique, Indonesia, Vietnam and Mauritius.