India to expand industrial presence in SE Asia: NSIC

National Small Industries Corporation Ltd (NSIC) has said it is looking at areas of mutual cooperation between Indian and Singaporean enterprises to expand India’s industrial presence in South East Asia.

“We would like to see if there are areas of mutual cooperation whereby Indian and Singaporean enterprises can have relationships. We would like to build that type of relationships,” NSIC chairman and managing director Ravindra Nath said.

As facilitator, NSIC would want to see collaborations between Singapore and Indian enterprises, involving training from either side, sharing of knowledge, expertise and machinery as per requirements of the two parties.

He said NSIC has already initiated similar discussions with enterprises in Vietnam and Malaysia.

NSIC, a Government of India Enterprise under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), has been working to fulfill its mission of promoting, aiding and fostering the growth of small industries and industry related micro, small and medium enterprises in the country. “We are gradually expanding into South East Asia,” Nath said at the ‘Make In India: Global Business Summit 2015’, held on Friday.

For NSIC, it is a role of facilitator in matching MSMEs with those in South East Asia. The NSIC is adopting its “successful model” applied in building relationships between Indian and African enterprises, which include exports of India-made machineries, expertise, technologies and training for setting new enterprises, mostly in developing economies.

He cited an example of India-Botswana SME venture which agrees to supply India-made HIV medicine for the first three years with the drug production to commence in the African country from the fourth year after completion of training in the manufacturing processes.

At home, the 1955-founded mini-Ratna NSIC is working with public sector companies to have Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) participate in the public procurement scheme, which became mandatory from 1 April 2015.

“We are in discussions with the public sector companies and government departments that their procurement of up to 20 per cent should be made through local MSEs,” he said, pointing out that the medium sized enterprises are not covered under the scheme.

This would mutually benefit all with MSEs participating in the 20 per cent allocated public procurement and the public sector achieving its target, he said.

The NSIC is also working on its “Rapid Incubation” scheme, providing structured training to people in setting up enterprises in India.