Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs) are the prime driving force of job creation
in nation after nation. This was stated by the Minister of State
for Small Scale Industries, Smt. Vashundhara Raje at the Global
Summit on SMEs which was inaugurated by the Prime Minister Shri
Atal Bihari Vajpayee here today. Smt Raje said that SMEs which
represent one of the fastest growing industrial sector in the
world, are capable of achieving their full potential, prosperity
and growth. The International SME Network has recently concluded
a study of 37 countries of all geographic macro regions and determined
that SMEs make up almost two-third of total industrial employment.
There is need for each nation to put in place a policy environment
which ensures that it become easy and cheap to set up a small
business, she said.
The Minister said
that India, having its own SME development agency, has taken many
SME related initiatives since 1954 and has built up a wealth of
expertise and experience, which India is happy to share with other
nations. Each year, 130,000 new business entities come up, creating
660,000 additional jobs and our Training Institutes have emerged
as International Training Centres of SMEs, said the Minister.
These Training Centres offer customized training solutions for
entrepreneurs and Government officials across the world, she said.
Smt. Raje said that
with the globalisation and WTO commitments, SMEs have now been
exposed to greater competition from overseas and International
trade transaction are tending to become more efficient. She stressed
the need for all business partners to work together to see that
this process of competitiveness and transition is made a little
less painful. Highlighting the initiatives taken by India, Smt.
Raje said that we began liberalizing economy, removing controls
and encouraging domestic competition in 1991. There was a similar
fear expressed then. But the resilience of our SMEs has shown
that they have inherent capabilities to adapt to potentially hostile
situations. The sector has been growing at a very fast 9 per cent
rate every year and adding employment at almost 4 percent every
year and it continues to outperform our large industry, both in
terms of growth and employment, she said.
The Minister hoped
that this Summit will have an agenda and a plan of action in place
so that when we go back we know exactly where to begin and this
needs to be done by building on individual strengths of each nation
and each SMEs support organization.
