CII Telangana holds MSME summit; TS strengthening efforts to increase exports

Hyderabad: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Telangana on Thursday organised a 'MSME summit', with the theme empowering MSMEs through Exports. In his Inaugural Address Dr Srikar K Reddy, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, mentioned that MSMEs were the largest employers and contribute immensely to GDP and also socio-economic development. The MSMSEs were severely impacted due the Covid. Studies have revealed that more than 90 per cent of MSMEs were functioning during the Covid, but they faced challenges of liquidity, manpower, raw materials and logistics. The government provided support to MSMEs through the 'Atmanirbhar; package.

Highlighting the government initiatives, Dr Reddy mentioned that it has set ups an ambitious target of US $ 400 billion exports for 2021-22, 38 per cent of the target has already been achieved by this month. "The government is also taking numerous measures to further increase exports to 1 $ trillion by 2027-28. The MSMEs will play an important role to achieve this target. The government is keen to provide more market access to Indian companies, specially MSMEs by facilitating FTAs. It is fast tracking FTAs with countries like the UAE, Israel, The European Union, the UK, Australia and Canada." Updating the status on the FTAs, Dr Reddy stated that negotiations were on and expected to be completed by March 2022. "Hopefully the FTAs will be in force from April 2022." The government recently notified the RoDTEP scheme to boost the exports and competitiveness in local markets. The interest neutralisation scheme will support exporters for pre and post shipment credit.

Mahesh Desai, Chairman, EEPC India and Managing Director, Meera and Ceiko Pumps Pvt Ltd in his special address mentioned that. Telangana is strengthening its efforts to increase its exports across categories. Merchandise exports from the State in 2019-20 were valued at $7.4 billion, growing at an annual average growth rate (AAGR) of 8.1 per cent between 2015-16 and 2019-20 period, significantly higher than the national AAGR of 4.7 per cent. Sameer Goel, Chairman, CII Telangana and Managing Director Coromandel International Ltd. Welcomed. The conference discussed export opportunities for MSMEs, export strategies and financing, information on exports data and platforms and key nations to export.