The MSME buyer-seller meet held as part of the Tamil Nadu Global Investor Meet (TNGIM) 2024 has attracted investment commitments worth about $6 million from 174 MSME units. Of this, close to $2 million came from 73 first-time exporters.
“This is a good sign that the Tamil Nadu government’s efforts to promote exports and entrepreneurship are bearing fruit,” said TM Anbarasan, Tamil Nadu Minister for MSMEs, at the international buyers and sellers meet.
The international buyers and sellers meet witnessed participation from Australia, Japan, Italy, Singapore, Spain and Kenya.
Anbarasan said the State government has planned to spend about ₹100 crore in export promotion programmes, which will include setting up of export promotion centres in all districts, export training for the officers of district industrial centres, and setting up of export hubs across 10 places in the State. “This is to enable exporters of Tamil Nadu’s micro, small and medium enterprises to compete globally,” he added.
Agro-industrial corridor
He also said the State government was proposing to establish an agro-industrial corridor at an estimated outlay of ₹1,170 crore to support the farmers of the State’s granary - Cauvery Delta Region.
An agro-industrial corridor including the Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, and Tiruchirappalli districts of Tamil Nadu. The Rs.1170 crore agro-industrial corridor project is expected to be implemented in five years
10% of total investments
Meanwhile, MSMEs (Micro, small, and medium enterprises) in Tamil Nadu have committed close to 10 per cent of the total investments attracted by the TNGIM 2024.
The State MSME department has attracted total investments of ₹63,573 crore, which will have the potential to 251,660 jobs. TNGIM 2024 attracted total investments of Rs.6.64 lakh crore.
The MSME department aggressively promoted the TNGIM event by conducting roadshows across cities and districts in order to attract investments from MSMEs.
Highlighting various measures undertaken to support the MSMEs, Anbarasan said the State Government had disbursed a total subsidy of Rs.824 crore to 12,182 MSMEs under the MSME Policy in the past two and half years.
The MSME department is also implementing 5 important self-employment schemes intending to create entrepreneurs from all sections of society. Loans to the tune of about ₹3,891 crore with a government subsidy of ₹1,100 crore were disbursed to the 30,981 educated youth to turn them into new entrepreneurs.
Tamil Nadu Trade Receivables and Discount Platform - Tamil Nadu-TreDS, which was set up to enable MSMEs to submit their invoices to banks and get quick loans, disbursed bank loans worth about ₹1,523 crore have been provided to 8371 invoices of micro, small, and medium enterprises.