core sector communique

Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Meets Minister of Industry and Trade, Republic of Mozambique

The Minister of Industry and Trade, Mozambique, Mr. Armando Inroga, along with Mr. Danilo Nala, Director General, GAZEDA, Mr. Odete Mondlane Tsamba, CEO, IPEME and other officials called on Shri Virbhadra Singh, Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises here today.

The Minister extended a warm welcome to the visiting dignitaries and assured full co-operation for the development of MSME sector in both countries. He said that MSME is one of the most important sector contributing to the Indian economy.

Mr. Armando Inroga, Minister of Industry and Trade, Mozambique, thanked the Minister of MSME and mentioned that there are enormous opportunities in the field of Small and Medium Enterprises for mutual benefits of both the countries. He further added that MSME is a priority sector, as they have plenty of land and resources available with them. He expressed his desire to collaborate with Indian MSME sector in view of the tremendous work done by India in this sector. He also informed that NSIC is setting up an incubation centre in Mozambique.

Shri Uday Kumar Varma, Secretary (MSME) during the meeting, emphasized that sharing of best experiences between the two countries should be the first step. He stated that the MSME sector in India contributes to about 45% of the total manufactured output and nearly 40% of India’s exports. There are approximately 26 million MSMEs in the country providing employment to about 60 million persons. He further informed that the Ministry is having very good infrastructure for providing entrepreneurship development training and offered to provide tailor-made programmes for the people of Mozambique, if they so desired. He asked the Mozambique Minister to take further action on the MoU, which was signed in September 2010 by holding first Joint Committee Meeting (JCM) as soon as possible. In this regard, he informed that the Ministry of MSME has already constituted a Joint Committee and the same has also been conveyed.

The visiting delegation agreed to constitute the Joint Committee and also requested Secretary (MSME) to hold the first JCM in Mozambique during the second week of June 2011. They further informed that during that time i.e. June 8-10, 2011, a trade fair on packaging industry is going to be held and also requested Secretary (MSME) to lead a delegation of MSMEs who can participate in that fair.

The Minister of Mozambique extended kind invitation to Shri Virbhadra Singh, Minister of MSME to visit Mozambique and lead a business delegation during the forthcoming trade exposition of Mozambique during August-September, 2011.