Gandhinagar

Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel today said a special cell for small and medium enterprises would be opened in her office soon.

Speaking at a seminar on `SMEs: Gearing up for Global Competitiveness’ at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit here, Patel said that SMEs are the backbone of Gujarat’s economy.

“I know that the sector is suffering due to red tapism.

That is why I have decided to open an SME cell in my office and monitor it personally. We will also open such cells in every district soon.

“This is the only sector which can alleviate poverty. My top priority is to inject new life into this sector. I will make sure that government officials do not harass you by asking you to provide attested documents. I give you all the powers to submit self-attested documents,” said Patel.

Union Minister for MSME Kalraj Mishra and Minister of State for MSME Giriraj Singh also spoke at the seminar. Singh said the Centre was taking all the necessary steps to boost investment in the sector.

“We are not against foreign direct investment in this sector. However, (Prime Minister) Modi gave a new meaning to FDI and termed it as `first develop in India’. Through this policy, we want to encourage new entrepreneurs to set up their business in India,” said Mishra.

Singh conceded that India does not enjoy a good reputation on the ease of doing business benchmarks, and the contribution of India’s MSME sector is lower than that in many other countries.

“MSME units in India manufacture around 6,000 products. However, this is just 16 per cent of total output. Countries like Thailand (34 pc), Indonesia (24 pc) and Germany (22 pc) are way ahead of us. Our ministry’s main aim is to bring that contribution from 16 per cent to at least 25 per cent,” Singh said.

“Our biggest challenge is to change the world’s perspective towards us. We rank 111th globally in providing various permissions for starting new business and 159th in providing various facilities to businesses. This has led the world to think that it is not easy to do business here. That is why Modi has brought various reforms under the Make in India drive,” he said.

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