Bhubaneswar: Pratap Sarangi, Minister of State, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, urged the banking industry to be reasonable towards genuine traders and asked them to extend their financial support.
In his speech, Sarangi said, “Traders community eases government’s effort on employment and job creation. They provide thousands of jobs and livelihood to people. These traders are not leaving countries by siphoning funds of banks. Few traders need time to repay the debt. Bank should be reasonable towards genuine traders. They should be provided with enough time.”
Sarangi addressed the entrepreneurs and banking authorities at MSME meet organised by Odisha Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (OASME) at IDCOL Auditorium here Sunday.
Meanwhile, Dibya Shankar Mishra, Minister of Industry, Govt of Odisha, claimed that Kesinga in Western Odisha will have a special SME cluster. “This cluster will create more job opportunities. Moreover, two SME clusters are also being planned for the state and it is likely to be operational very soon,” he said.
OASME Secretary General Satwik Swain urged the two ministers to form and implement a policy in which all PSUs of a state must procure products from local MSME units. “There is a provision that PSU should procure 25 per cent of products, but we request that out of total, these PSUs should procure 12.5 per cent products from MSME units. We also urge state government to form a portal similar to GeM for procurement of SME products,” Swain said.
Other dignitaries present at the event were Arun Panda (Secretary MSME, Govt. of India), Tapan Kumar Chand (Nalco CMD) and OASME Chairman Gauri Sankar Mishra.
