Ahmedabad: The 2nd Common Facility Center (CFC) for the gem & jewellery and diamond industry was inaugurated at Palanpur by Minister of State (IC) for Commerce & Industry Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, and Minister of State for MSME Shri Haribhai Chaudhary on Monday, 10th July. The 1st Common Facility Center was set up at Visnagar, Gujarat. GJEPC has further plans to open two more CFCs at Amreli and Ahmedabad.

Minister of State (IC) for Commerce & Industry Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman said, “From being the largest manufacturing hub, India needs to move to the next level, where indigenous designs are used in production of jewellery and at the same time caters to the needs of the world market. With the facilities like the CFCs in Visnagar and now in Palanpur, I am sure we have taken the start and moving in the right direction to achieve our goal. The industry needs to come up with such initiatives where the small and medium units gets the opportunity to combine their skills with the latest technology and facilities for maximum production.”

Minister of State for MSME Shri Haribhai Chaudhary said, “Our aim is to make the latest technology available, accessible to the MSMEs, and at the same time improve in quality of products. Common Facility Centers would be a welcome change for the karigars, and an opportunity for them to perform at their best with the latest technology which are accessible and affordable. I am sure the industry will take advantage of the CFCs and bring a huge difference to their production in terms of quantity as well as quality.”

Shri Kirit Bhansali, Co-convener, Diamond Panel, GJEPC said, “setting up of CFCs would of huge benefit to small and medium diamond manufacturing units located in towns and interior villages, since most of these units are operating with old and outdated technology, and could not afford to make investments for installing state-of-the-art equipment. And this has resulted in lower productivity and affected quality to an extent.”

Setting up of Common Facility Center is an ambitious project of GJEPC and a “Make in India” initiative. GJEPC has plans to set up such Common Facility Centers across all major clusters in India, thus helping to improve the quality and productivity of the small units.