Goyal Asks India to Follow Singapore MSME Support Model

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal today said large Companies must take responsibility to handhold MSMEs, help them adapt best practices and integrate them into the supply chain ecosystem. He was speaking at the fourth Plenary Session of B20 India Inception Meeting on Building Resilient Global Value Chains in Gandhinagar on 23 January 2023.

Mr. Goyal noted that MSMEs flourish around a larger unit or anchor. Citing an example, he said, as Apple's manufacturing plant comes up, thousands of MSME units flourish in the ecosystem as mini value chain suppliers to Apple. He also said that MSMEs have more practical solutions, day to day experiences, and having learnt the hard way, are able to adapt to circumstances better than large companies. He said large Companies must be sensitized to handhold MSMEs associated with them. We must also try to make it easier to operate for small companies, eliminate unnecessary paperwork, make custom processes simpler, and use technology to ease and simplify processes.

He pointed out that Singapore has been playing an important role as a trading hub and suggested that a study can be done to figure out what Singapore has been doing right and based on this a basic framework can be created for supporting MSMEs. It may involve Infrastructure development, addressing challenges of logistics, he added. He also said MSMEs bring trust to the table, which is the most important element of any value chain be it domestic or international.

On integrating India with Global value chains, Mr. Goyal said if we do not harmonize our value chains with the rest of the world, or if we don't create logistics which are easier and faster, it would be difficult for international companies to get India into its value chain. To become a trusted and resilient partner in global value chains, Mr. Goyal said, the Government is also focusing on creating an enabling ecosystem, that is simpler, faster and promotes ease of doing business. He said the focus of the government is on trying to make our country accept Quality as a most important factor in the success story of india. He emphasized that setting global benchmarks, harmonizing Indians standards with global standards, and consumers becoming more demanding of quality are essential for India to become a global key player.