$6 mn MSME programme to help Orissa units

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) has proposed to the Orissa government for implementation of a programme for the development of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector in the state before the expiry of its technical assistance programme (TAP) as per the provisions of the Industrial Policy Resolution, 2001 on March 31 this year, UNIDO has submitted a proposal to the state industry department in this regard and the state government on its part has recommended the project for assistance from the Department for International Development (DFID) under its country assistance programme, 2010 to 2015.

Sources said, the proposal will be discussed in the annual tripartite meeting scheduled to be held on 16th of this month between the Government of India (GoI), Government of Orissa (GoO) and the DFID. The programme has four components like MSME Policy, institutional capacity strengthening for Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa (Ipicol), Single Window Mechanism (SWM) and Directorate of Industries (DoI), MSME skill development and MSME promotion and business development programmes in the state.

In the policy programmes, UNIDO will render MSME policy advice pertaining to regulations and incentives, industrial investment, Public-Private-Investment for SME park development and continuous policy engineering programmes including investor and business survey.

Under the Team Orissa institutional strengthening programmes for Ipicol and DoI, UNIDO proposes to take up institutional capacity strengthening of Team Orissa for investment promotion activities and Single Window Mechanism. Similarly, for skill development, entrepreneurship development, technology promotion, upgradation and restructuring (TUR) programmes for SMEs, supplier development programme (SDP) and SME Trade Capacity Building Programme (TCP) will be taken up. Besides, it proposes to take up SME manufacturing and Industrial park promotion programme either through public-private-partnership (PPP) or Build-Own-Transfer (BOT) mode.

While efforts will be made to attract domestic and foreign investment to the SME parks, cluster development of SMEs will be promoted in a big way. Linkages will be established through SME subcontracting exchange and marketing assistance will be provided through SME Trade Export Promotion Programme for SMEs in the ancillary parks proposed in the sectors like aluminium, steel, cement, petro-chemicals among others.

The proposal also seeks to achieve cleaner production programmes along with SME financing and guarantee schemes. The approximate expenditure under the plan is about $ 6 million (Rs 30 crore). “We have submitted the MSME Development Programme to the Orissa government and hope a decision will be made soon”, Alejandro Vera, Project Manager (Orissa),UNIDO, told Business Standard.

He said, the agro food processing, ancillary and downstream industries in sectors like steel, aluminium, cement, petroleum, petro-chemical and power sector will be the thrust area of the programme. If the DFID agrees to fund the programme, then the SMEs in the state are set to get a boost.

Since UNIDO is focusing on the development of SMEs and DFID is also focused on this sector, there is every likelihood of the programme getting the assistance of the DFID. IPR Technical Assistance Programme, implemented earlier, essentially focused on the investment promotion, clustering and SWM among others.