Secretary MSME at the India- Taiwan SME Development Forum in Taipei

Secretary MSME,Dr.Arun Kumar Panda, led the Indian Delegation in the India- Taiwan SME Development Forum being held at Taipei, Taiwan from 13^th to 17^th November, 2018. In his opening remarks at the Forum yesterdayDr. Panda said the MSME sector in India occupies a position of strategic importance. Currently, there are over 63 million MSMEs across various industries that employ more than 111 million persons and produce more than 8,000 products, ranging from traditional to high-tech precision items. He said MSME is the second largest employment generating sector after agriculture. Talking about the initiatives taken by Government of India under Start-up India, he said to promote a culture of entrepreneurship, programs like ‘Start Up India’ and ‘Stand Up India’ have been launched and have resulted in India having the 3^rd largest start up ecosystem in the world with more than 26,000 start-ups.

Speaking about integrating the Indian MSMEs with the regional and global value chain he said that there is a lot of potential for cooperation in MSME sector between India and Taiwan. Dr. Panda said India welcomes investment both in terms of technology transfers and FDI by Taiwanese companies in India with Indian SMEs. Sectors like electronics, auto-components, textiles, automobiles, bamboo industry, in which Taiwan has largest concentration, are of special interest to India, he said.

Twenty enterprises from India in the field of general engineering, auto components, electronics & plastics are attending the forum with the purpose of seeking linkages in their respective fields with their Taiwanese counterparts. The MSME ministry has been running an International Cooperation Scheme for the Indian MSMEs with the objective of technology infusion and upgradation, their modernization and promotion of exports.

Taiwan has strong industrial base with well developed micro, small and medium (MSME) sector especially in semiconductors, petrochemicals, automobile and auto parts, wireless communication equipment, steel, plastics, textiles and light engineering machineries. Indian MSMEs are considered competitive in sectors like auto components, pharmaceuticals, IT, bio-technology and Food Processing.

Major export commodities from India are naphtha, minerals, refined copper cathodes, ferrochromium, zinc, aluminium and pig iron.The main import commodities from Taiwan are Poly Vinyl Chloride, flat rolled products of alloyed steel, electronic integrated circuit, accessories of machines, solar cells, digital cameras andvoice transmission machines.

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MM/ KA