THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A meeting of the Council of State Industrial Development and Investment Corporations of India (COSIDICI) will be held here on July 9 to finalise the business plan of State Finance Corporations (SFCs).
The Kerala Financial Corporation will host the meeting, which aims to chart out a plan to revitalise SFCs, that have been facing severe challenges after economic liberalisation.
“SFCs were set up more than five decades ago with the objective of promoting small and medium enterprises to achieve balanced regional growth. Their fortunes declined after the opening up of the economy in 1990s. Now COSIDICI is taking efforts to revitalize SFCs,” said Sanjeev Kaushik, chairman and managing director of KFC, and also the Principal Secretary (Finance) to the state.
COSIDICI was established in 1976 as a federation of 18 State Financial Corporations, 29 State Industrial Development Corporations (SIDCs) and nine State Industrial Infrastructure & Investment Corporations (SIICs).
“The meeting will finalise the plan to revitalize SFCs. The MSME sector contributes 40 per cent to the country’s exports and 45 per cent to the country’s industrial output,” said Sanjeev Kaushik.
“Some of the units financed by SFCs have become big industrial groups. Some examples are Infosys, Biocon, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Cremica” Kaushik added.
COSIDICI meeting is among a slew of programmes to revive SFCs and MSMEs. The Reserve Bank of India has constituted an expert committee on MSMEs, under the chairmanship of U K Sinha, to suggest long-term solutions for the growth of MSME sector.