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The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector was hit hard by the global economic slowdown and so its contribution to overall exports has declined to 36 percent from 40 percent earlier, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of MSME, K H Muniyappa, said on Monday.
"The MSME Sector of India has been repeatedly mentioned as the growth engine of the Indian Economy, but the depth of its achievements are often not fully appreciated. The MSME sector contributes around 9 percent of GDP and accounts for around 45 percent of the manufacturing output and around 36 percent of total value of exports (which was 40 percent earlier)," MSME Minister said, while addressing the Media on the eve of the main event of National Award Presentation.
"We are committed to the sector's overall growth and hope that MSMEs contribution to exports will move above 40 percent in the next few years," Muniyappa told SME Times on the sidelines of the conference.
He also said that the government has set up an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC), headed by Saurabh Chandra, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), to address the exports issues of the sector and suggest ways to boost the manufacturing output.
Earlier, a meeting was organised by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Textile on March 15, 2013 where the Cabinet Secretary, Ajit Seth reviewed and interacted with the stakeholders regarding exports of goods from MSME Sector.
"The Committee will be serviced by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. And the Committee will submit its recommendations within one month," he added.
The minister welcomed the various steps taken by the Finance Minister in his budget, but also expressed his dissatisfaction over downfall, he urged the government for further support.
He said, "Whilst all this sounds very good, we are still not satisfied and look forward to further support from the entire Government."
"I am also very thankful to Finance Minister who has announced very concrete measures for support of MSME. I would urge the Finance Minister to also extend on a similar basis the tax benefits to such growth bound MSMEs," he added.
The MSME sector having around 3.6 crore enterprises employing over 8 crore persons.
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