Kolkata: Chairman of West Bengal Small Industries Development Corporation Biplab Roychowdhury said on Friday that more stress should be given to upgrade Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector to compete with foreign companies.
Addressing the the annual manufacturing and MSME conclave, organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said 60 percent of products worldwide was produced in MSME sectors and China had gone miles ahead in developing its MSME strength.
The conclave is a two-day event, which began on February 22.
"We are still in the contemplative stage. It's high time that we upgrade ourselves and modernise, innovate and improve our standards to meet foreign markets. Unless we compete globally we will lag behind," he said.
The purpose of the programme, organised by the Bengal Chamber, is to understand the vision of the manufacturing units, particularly the MSME manufacturing units and to prepare a "way forward" on what would be the long-term approach of the manufacturing industries with MSMEs in particular in achieving quality manufacturing for the industry at large which would help in further developments and growth of the entire engineering/manufacturing fraternity of our country. According to government data, Bengal has the highest number of MSMEs in the country with 52,69,814 units, with Bengal accounting for 11.62 per cent of micro, small and medium enterprises, the most among the top 10 states of the country.
Commodore Ratnakar Ghosh, (Retd), Former Director (Shipbuilding), Garden Reach, Lt General Aniruddha Chakraborty, (Retd), Indian Army, Ministry of Defence, Government of India;
Ayudh Bhusan Dr Rajiv Chakraborty, IOFS (Retd), Former Sr General Manager, Gun and Shell Factory, Cossipore, Ordnance Factory Board, Ministry of Defence, Government of India; Sanjay S Sahni, Chief of marketing & sales (BPS), Tata Steel Limited and Dr Suman K Mukerjee, Director General, Bhawanipur Education Society College took part in the conclave.