THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major relief to more than 2 lakh Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises’ (MSME) entrepreneurs, the government has drawn up a plan to start a pension scheme for these industries.Industries Minister A C Moideen made the announcement while inaugurating the award distribution ceremony of MSMEs for 2014-15 here on Wednesday.
The government is likely to start the contributory pension scheme in association with a public sector insurance provider.“A pension scheme has been a long pending demand for MSME entrepreneurs. Earlier, government’s attempt to start a pension scheme ended in failure as a particular section tried to limit the scheme to a group of small scale industries,” said an officer of Industries Department.
MSME has been the engine of growth and the sector is contributes to 45 per cent of the production. The government pushed various measures to promote MSME which have been lagging due to lack of infrastructure and financial support.
Maiden industrial policy this month
The Pinarayi Vijayan Government will unveil its maiden industrial policy in January which will provide backing to MSMEs, with the focus on employment generation. “Generating jobs is crucial since more Malayali expats are returning home from West Asia( GCC countries) and MSMEs have proved they can indeed generate employment,” said Moideen. The draft industrial policy announced in June lays thrust on private industrial parks and special cells for single window clearance.
Moideen reiterated the government’s commitment to provide an industrial friendly environment.
He lauded the support extended by the Local Self- Government Department for helping the government in revoking the local bodies’ arbitrary powers to issue stop memos to industrial units. According to Moideen, the Industries Ministry has been in talks with Planning Board to use the local bodies’ plan fund to develop infrastructure for MSMEs.Additional Chief Secretary (Industries) T K Jose, KSIDC MD M Beena and K Muraleedharan MLA attended the function.