Coimbatore: Buyer-seller meets would be organized once in every six months in cities across Tamil Nadu to facilitate small-scale industries to market their products to global companies, said micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSME) minister T M Anbarasan.
Inaugurating a buyer-seller meet here on Thursday, Anbarasan said the MSMEs in TN had grown manifold in the past three years after the DMK formed govt in the state.
The buyer-seller meet saw participation of 28 buyers from 14 countries such as Japan, Germany, US, UAE, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and Egypt. At least 250 MSMEs also participated and marketed their products.
The minister said in the first buyer-seller meet organized as part of the global investors meet in January this year, MoUs were signed for procurement of products worth 42 crore from 174 MSMEs. "Of this, products worth 16 crore were procured from first-time exporters. Ever since the DMK formed govt in the state, MSMEs are given financial assistance to participate in the buyer-seller meets in India and abroad. In the past two years, 5 crore was spent to facilitate participation of 250 MSMEs in such meets."
Pointing out that selling their products in domestic market would not fetch huge profits for MSMEs, the minister said, "If they market their products globally, they could reap considerable profit."
In the global investors meet held in January this year, he said MoUs were signed with 5,068 firms for investments worth 65,573 crore on behalf of MSME department, facilitating generation of 2.5 lakh jobs. "It's because of initiatives like the global investors meet TN is marching towards the top position in industrial production. As an extension of such measures, buyer-seller meets are organized," he said.
While TN's share in exports from India accounts for 9.25%, there is a surge in exports from MSMEs in TN, particularly in the electric vehicle sector, aerospace, pharma and petrochemical industries, Anbarasan said.
He said the work on export guidance centres in 10 places, including Coimbatore, Hosur and Tirupur, was underway.