Union MSME minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said that exports need to be pushed for revival of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise sector bearing the brunt of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

Interacting with via video conferencing with the representatives of Bharat Chamber of Commerce, enterprises from various sectors, media and other stakeholders, Gadkari said Regarding revival of MSME sector that special focus towards export enhancement is the need of the hour and necessary practices shall be adopted to reduce power cost, logistics cost and production cost to become competitive in the global market. 

He further mentioned that the highways and ports have started functioning and over the period of time the operations will be on track.

During the interaction, the representatives expressed concerns regarding various challenges being faced by MSMEs amid COVID-19 pandemic along with few suggestions and requested support from the government to keep the MSME sector afloat. 

Gadkari stressed that there is also need to focus on import substitution to replace foreign imports with domestic production. He urged enterprises to make use of technology and mentioned that research, innovation and quality improvement can play a major role in industrial development. 

The Minister also stated that Government of Japan has offered a special package to their industry for taking out their investments from China and move elsewhere. He opined that this is an opportunity for India and should be grabbed.

It was also stated that work on Delhi – Mumbai Express Way has already started, and this is an opportunity for industry to make future investments in industrial clusters, industrial parks, smart villages and smart cities (nearby to smart villages) with focus on decentralization approach in rural and tribal areas and urged that such proposals be submitted to NHAI.

Some of the issues pointed out by the representatives and the suggestions given include, prioritizing launch of interest subvention scheme, finalizing definition of MSMEs, enhance working capital loan limit for MSMEs, opening the markets along with starting operations of the industries, effective implementation of RBI guideline related to providing additional liquidity to industries, exploring the option to utilize the corpus fund of ESI, etc.

Gadkari responded to the questions from representatives and requested for sending suggestions and assured all the help from the government.