New Delhi, March 1 (IANS): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday asked the industry to come up with innovative solutions to address the problems of the MSME sector and provide inputs for policy formulation.
"I would urge industry associations and chambers of commerce in India to come forward with innovative solutions to address constraints that still hinder the development of the MSME sector and provide constructive inputs for policy formulation and implementation," he said at an award ceremony here for MSMEs.
Emphasising the need to promote exports from micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Manmohan Singh said: "Only a fraction of enterprises today have the skills, risk appetite and resources to avail of the opportunities offered by globalisation. We need to change this state of affairs."
He expressed satisfaction that the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises has been taking steps to promote MSME cooperation with other countries and give Indian enterprises exposure to international markets and foreign technologies.
"The government’s initiatives can be successful only with the participation of the private sector and civil society," the prime minister said.
The sector, employing over 10 crore people, accounts for 8 percent of the country's GDP, 45 per cent of its manufacture output and 43 percent of its exports, he said.
"It is a matter of satisfaction for us that the MSME sector has grown at a healthy rate of 10 percent in recent years," he added.
The government, he said, had taken several steps to remove constraints that impede faster development of the sector.
"The MSME Development Act, passed in 2006, was one of the important initiatives in this direction. Subsequently, we began implementing the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme, which is a blueprint for increasing competitiveness in the sector," he said.
Manmohan Singh said the public procurement policy, announced in 2012, would help improve the market access and competitiveness of micro and small enterprises by increasing their participation in government purchases and encouraging them to establish linkages with large enterprises.
The Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) launched in 2008-09 has helped to set up over 200,000 micro units and provide job opportunities to over 2.1 million people.