The Gujarat government on Tuesday signed an MoU with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to increase self-reliance and provide capacity building and market support to the state's 35 lakh micro-small-medium enterprises (MSMEs). State Additional Chief Secretary of Industries and Mines MK Das and SIDBI Deputy Managing Director Vasantharao Satya Venkata Rao signed the MoU in the presence of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Gandhinagar, a release said.

The aim is to "accelerate technology transfer and innovation in state MSMEs through training and capacity building programmes," it said. SIDBI will help the small scale industries in the state to come out of the current COVID-19 situation effectively, and also evaluate feasibility of infrastructure projects and common facility centres for MSME clusters in the state, the release added.

SIDBI will handhold the MSME units to create digital platforms to keep pace with world trends, it said. "Under the Centre's Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), so far, Rs 10,56,268 lakh loans have been approved for 2,11,532 MSME units in the state to get over financial difficulties. The state government also announced a package of Rs 768 crore to assist MSMEs in the COVID-19 situation," it stated.

"The Chief Minister has been aiming to enable such MSME industries to survive global market competition with incentives like capital subsidy, interest subsidy, patent assistance, technology acquisition," it said.