Sudarshan Chhotoray in Bhubaneswar, December 22, 2018: Despite several announcements, MSME sector with 6.3 crore enterprises which employees close to 11 crore in formal and non-formal sector is still struggling hard without adequate facilitation of finance, market and technology.

These were issues and concerns discussed in the workshop ‘SME Manufacturing Excellence through Procurement and Financing Innovation’ being organized by Utkal Chamber of Commerce & Industry (UCCI) held on Thursday in Bhubaneswar.

“The sector is the largest after Agriculture and contribute significantly to GDP but due to non-implementation of policy and Government schemes the sector is not taking off”, said Dr. H. P. Kumar, Director – External Affairs, Power2SME and CMD, NSIC who gave a holistic overview on the role of MSME as an economic driver and the role of Power2SME for harnessing the growth of MSMEs.

Kumar further added that Odisha MSME policy could be a role model for other states and so is the packages under National Policy but in ground we have failed to take benefits of the scheme. It may be due to lack of support from government Officials or ignorance of entrepreneurs.

Kumar sought the government to come forward to implement MSME policy in partnership with Industry Associations.

Former Bureaucrat Vivek Patnaik in his presentation urged the Government to revive State Finance Corporation and IPICOL to suit industry needs as there has been a lot of innovations and technological advancements emerging today.

“Now time is ripe to set up Venture Capitals under CSR and big Companies should take the lead to support MSME sector”, said Patnaik.

“Unfortunately we don’t have Regional Stock Exchanges or Industry specific Stock Exchanges. We should have one for MSME sector”, opined Patnaik.

While President of UCCI Ramesh Mahapatra set the agenda for the workshop, Director General Rajen Padhi introduced the subject.