SME sector requires constant encouragement: CII

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SME Times News Bureau | 13 Jan, 2011
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are a thriving component of the product and service value chain and require constant encouragement, said Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, speaking at the inaugural session of the International Roundtable for Small Businesses.

The International Roundtable for Small Businesses is the concurrent event being organised with the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit (VGGIS) 2011, in Gandhinagar.

Banerjee said, the proposed SME network is in line with the CII Agenda to promote Enterprise-to-Enterprise cooperation and would provide a source of strength to SMEs, so that they are able to face the vagaries of business cycle. This essentially means that the small businesses would find their rightful place in the present globalized world.

SME network would also provide opportunities to the experts across the globe in terms of highlighting and sharing best practices followed by SMEs vis-à-vis sustaining the growth momentum and also validating such practices in an international context for generating a repository of ideas that can be localized for contextual action.

While inaugurating the event, Minister of State for Industries, Government of Gujarat, Saurabh Patel said, "India is an important market for international SMEs looking to add new businesses and for those countries looking to learn how they can support and develop their own MSMEs. Gujarat more than any other State in India embodies the Indian SME experience."

According to Geoffrey Van-Orden Member of the European Parliament, the EU charter for SMEs called for a greater and more intense international engagement between the enterprises, cutting across geographical boundaries and trade barriers. He added that India has continually demonstrated an ability to nurture its SMEs into national and international corporations. A great deal of this success can be attributed to the entrepreneurial ability of Indians, which is continually being demonstrated by Indian nationals and NRIs around the world.

In his message to the participants at the Roundtable, Dr Mohan Kaul, Director General, CBC, added that doing business with another Commonwealth country can be up to 15% less expensive than doing business with non-Commonwealth countries as a result of the common language of English, similar legal and accounting systems and the informal networks which bind our countries together. These factors are of immense advantage to SMEs.

According to Dr Kaul, there is a need to establish a joint 'Global network/institutional framework' for SMEs in the Commonwealth countries, that would facilitate a greater sharing of experience and expertise between SMEs, as well as strengthen commercial relations by expanding and deepening economic, trade and investment cooperation in the Commonwealth and worldwide.

Earlier Ramesh Datla, Chairman, CII National MSME Council, in his welcome remarks mentioned that SMEs worldwide have shown tremendous agility, responsiveness and flexibility in dealing with several business cycles. However, most of the times, such actions are left best being localized and there is hardly any platform that encapsulates such innovative survival strategies of SMEs and offering feedback to such actions. The International Roundtable for Small Businesses provides one such opportunity to the stakeholders to highlight and share their thoughts and ideas.

More than 100 participants attended the International Roundtable for Small Businesses, from across the globe, that included representatives from organisations like the Commonwealth Business Council, Bank of Industry (Nigeria), London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Europe India Chambers of Commerce, Eurochambers, UNIDO, Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).