“They (MSMEs) need our continued support. Their empowerment translates to societal empowerment. For us, MSME means – Maximum Support to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises,” said PM Modi.
G20: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday called for enhanced attention and support to MSMEs globally given that the latter “account for 60 to 70 per cent of employment and contribute 50 per cent to the global GDP.” Virtually addressing the G20 Trade and Investment Ministers’ Meeting in Jaipur, PM Modi said, “They need our continued support. Their empowerment translates to societal empowerment. For us, MSME means – Maximum Support to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises.”
The Prime Minister highlighted that India has integrated MSMEs into public procurement through the public procurement platform Government e-Marketplace (GeM).
“We have been working with our MSME sector to adopt the ethos of ‘Zero Defect’ and ‘Zero Effect’ on the environment. Increasing their participation in global trade and Global Value Chains has been a priority of the Indian presidency,” he said.
According to the SME Finance Forum, a knowledge centre managed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for promoting SME finance, as of 2019, East Asia and the Pacific region with 10.2 crore MSMEs had the highest number of such enterprises worldwide followed by 7.5 crore in South Asia, 4.8 crore in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3.5 crore in Europe and Central Asia, 3.3 crore in North America, 1.7 crore in Latin America and Caribbean, and 1 crore in Middle East and North Africa. The aggregate MSME count across these regions stood at 32.2 crore.
Meanwhile, PM Modi also underscored technology’s role in trade. He said India’s shift to an online single indirect tax – GST – helped create a single internal market boosting inter-state trade. Moreover, “the Unified Logistics Interface Platform makes trade logistics cheaper and more transparent.
Another game changer is ‘Open Network for Digital Commerce’, which will democratize our digital marketplace eco-system. We have already done that with our Unified Payments Interface for payment systems. Digitizing processes and use of e-commerce have the potential to enhance market access,” he said.
However, as cross-border e-commerce continues to grow, there are challenges as well, PM Modi said as he urged the members to work collectively to ensure equitable competition between large and small sellers. He also called for addressing the problems faced by consumers in fair price discovery and grievance handling mechanisms.
