Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
* Concerted efforts by all stakeholders required to boost SMEs : Banking experts
Amritsar,Stressing on a renewed thrust on the development of MSMEs, Vinay Mahajan, Regional Manager, State Bank of India said, “State governments, banks, industry and all other stakeholders need to come forward and supplement each other for the growth of MSMEs.”
Mahajan was speaking during the industry roundtable on “Addressing the Financing Issues of SMEs” organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the third day of PHD- Punjab International Trade Expo, PHD-PITEX, 2014 at Ranjit Avenue, here today.
The roundtable was organized to discuss the problems faced by Small and Medium Enterprises of the region in arranging finance.
“To make the ‘Make in India’ drive of the present government successful” Piara Lal Seth, President, Shawl Club Amritsar said, “the financial investment, infrastructure and working culture should be of international level to compete in the international market.”
To make this happen, said Seth, the fund flow should be such which pushes the growth of industry to the next level. Rates of Interest for industry should be competitive to enable the industrial units to invest further and upgrade their plant and machinery.
Highlighting that Indian industries face impediments like technological obsolescence, relatively poor product quality, insufficient information, poor market linkages, inadequate management systems, power shortage and a host of other problems besides pressures from the international markets, Dalip Sharma, Director, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that financing schemes should be such which facilitate growth of industry. “There should be marketing- loaning linkages to make the financial arrangements successful”, he added.
In the Indian scenario where infrastructure and provision of finance is still largely provided and regulated through the government or its institutions, the involvement of such institutions will not only be necessary but also has to be innovative to cater to the specific needs, said Mr Sharma.
The delegates from Pakistan who were present on the occasion stressed on the need for having Pakistan Bank branches in India and vice versa to facilitate easy transactions by trade and industry.
Amit Sethi, DGM, who represented Small Industries Development Bank of India, SIDBI shared the bank’s initiatives for various clusters in the State besides sharing the bank’s SME specific policies.
Shalender Girdhar, Deputy Vice President, Cluster Head, Amritsar, AXIS Bank also joined deliberations and shared Axis Bank’s arrangements with foreign banks for facilitating both Indian and Pak traders.
