Kerala - Kochi   

Promoting SMEs for poverty alleviation

Kochi: A pan-Commonwealth expo of SME (small and medium enterprises) products and rural technologies, a cache of business sessions on themes like SMEs as engines of growth and visits by Commonwealth country delegates to SME units and a coir cluster in Cherthala will be the highlights of the 7th Commonwealth-India Small Business Competitiveness Development Programme that got under way here Wednesday evening.

The programme is a platform to bring countries together to share their experiences in SME development, said Jose Maurel, Director, Special Advisory Services Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

The Programme theme underscores the emphasis on promoting local resources-based SMEs as a source of employment generation and poverty alleviation. Of this, India is a fine example. India is a laboratory for SMEs, said Ram Venuprasad, Adviser (Enterprises Development) of the Special Advisory Services Division. He said India had so much to show to the world in terms of SME development.

Coir, he said, was a fine example. Similarly, rice processing is another because rice is a staple diet in most of the Commonwealth countries, he said.

The six-day Programme is co-hosted by the Coir Board and the coir industry in India has been taken up as an example of how local-resource-based SME development can be augmented.

Mr. Venuprasad said the 6th Small Business Development Programme here in Kochi early this year had resulted in the message of the coir industry going to Commonwealth countries that have potential for developing the coir industry.

The government of Samoa in the Western Pacific had taken a decision to develop a coir industry for which the Coir Board will provide expertise. This is an example of South-South cooperative engendered by periodic Programmes.

These Programmes bring together not only policy-makers but also entrepreneurs, experts, business facilitators and institutions like the Export-Import Bank for interactions, sharing of expertise and experiences. Sixty-two delegates from 28 Commonwealth countries are attending the Programme that will end on Monday.

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