THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The policy address cited the formation of Kerala Bank as a major event in the cooperative sector. “The emergence of a cooperative scheduled bank, currently the second largest in the state, is of immense importance to the development of the state.
While KIIFB finances largescale infrastructure development, the Kerala Bank will focus on financing entrepreneurs in agro processing industries and other MSME sectors,” it said. The bank is also engaged in entrepreneurship development, the document said. A total of thirty programmes were launched by industrial promotion agencies and Kerala Bank.
This is in addition to the Chief Minister’s Entrepreneurship Development Programme. The scheme has set a target of financing 1,000 units annually totalling up to 5,000 units in the next five years. The total fund requirement for providing loans under the programme is Rs 1,500 crore, which would be raised by Kerala Financial Corporation.
The bank’s support was also roped in for supporting the tourism industry to survive Covid crisis. In order to help stakeholders, Covid-19 relief assistance package was announced by the Tourism Department, through the Chief Minister’s Tourism Loan Assistance Scheme. It includes interest subvention for need-based financial assistance and tourism employee wage support schemes.
They are being implemented in association with the State Level Bankers Committee and the Kerala Bank.
During the lockdown and afterwards, the Cooperative Department made fruitful intervention by providing food kits, medicines, masks, assistance to community kitchens, uninterrupted service through Neethi Medicals and Neethi Store, procurement of paddy and sugar. The cooperative societies also provided interest-free loans, the document said.