By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, March 11, 2015 :

In a bid to further boost the MSMEs in the state, chief secretary Gokul Chandra Pati on Wednesday held open house discussion with entrepreneurs on the sidelines of 11th Entrepreneurs Week to know their problems.

Responding to various issues raised by MSME Associations, Pati asked Industries Director to hold grievance camps for MSMEs each month on a fixed day and compile grievances raised by the entrepreneurs and move concerned departments for quick redressal.

Pati has advised MSME secretary to put in place one OSIC led marketing consortium for providing common brand and marketing support to the state based MSMEs. Besides, he underscored the need to develop MSME clusters as growth centers.

The discussion centered around the issues relating to revival of sick units, procurement by PSUs and large scale industries operating in the state from Odisha based MSMEs, extension of credit guarantee facility to the units running in rented premises, revival of Odisha State Financial Corporation [OSFC], purchase from local export promotion market [EPM] rate contract holders by turnkey contract awardees, settlement of pending credit cases as per one time settlement [OTS] policy and skill development activities in various MSME clusters.

Besides, they deliberated on the availability of degraded forest for compensatory afforestation, various statutory clearances, establishment of entrepreneur development centers, establishment of incubation centers and common facility centers, raw material entry tax for MSMEs, establishment of textile park, separate power tariff for MSMEs etc.