VASUNDHRA RAJE VISITING CHINA
VISIT TO PROMOTE COOPERATION
IN SME SECTOR
Smt. Vasundhara Raje,
Minister of State for Small Scale Industries is leading a delegation
to visit China from 15th August to 21st
August, 2002. Apart from the Secretary SSI and other officials
of the Ministry and its organizations, members of FICCI and FISME
representing small enterprises are accompanying her. During the
visit, the Minister will be visiting Xiamen, Shanghai, Hangzhou
and Beijing. Smt. Raje has been invited by Shri Rongrong, Chairman,
State Trade and Economic Commission. This post carries the same
stature as that of Chairman, Planning Commission in India.
She will be meeting
various dignitaries including Government officials at National,
Provincial and Local Government level during the visit. She will
also visit Small Medium Enterprises(SMEs), an Export Promotion
Zone, an industrial area and also meet representatives of the
Chinese Chambers of SMEs etc. One to one business meets have also
been organized for the private members of the delegation according
to their interests. The Minsiter will also be making a day long
visit to see small hydro power projects. China holds 17% of the
small hydel power potential and more than half of all developed
small hydel power amounting to 26,000MW in over 50,000 locations.
China has entered
the WTO in December, 2001. It has tremendous strengths in the
SME sector because of a variety of reasons, especially the availability
of cheap labour. It is extremely important that the two largest
countries in the world cooperate in this employment generating
sector for the mutual benefit of both the countries.
The visit will
provide an idea of the SMEs in China, their status, their problems,
the support structure of the Governement, the Credit delivery
mechanism, etc. India is in the process of reinforcing our support
infrastructure for SSIs and this visit will provide useful inputs
for this purpose. It will also further cooperation between two
countries in form of joint ventures, technology transfers, marketing
arrangements and technical tie-ups.
