CUTTACK: In its effort to support the MSME sector growth in Odisha, Nalco has decided to enhance its procurement from the domestic small and medium scale enterprises to Rs400 crore, CMD of the National PSU TK Chand said here on Wednesday. Inaugurating the National-level vendor development programme-cum-industrial exhibition and buyer-seller meet ‘MSME Expo-Odisha 2015’, Chand said Nalco’s upcoming Aluminium Park at Angul was making fast progress. It would give a major boost to MSME sector by providing opportunities to entrepreneurs and generating huge employment.
A high-level team has been formed by the Chief Secretary which would soon visit the Middle East countries to study development of downstream and upstream industries in aluminium sector, he said.
Around 100 MSMEs and 13 mother plants, Government departments, financial institutions, banks and promotional agencies are taking part in the three-day expo organised by MSME Development Institute (MSMEDI) in association with State MSME Department, CTTC, Bhubaneswar and Odisha Industries’ Association (OIA).
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Materials Manager, East Coast Railway RK Dash pointed at the lack of local vendors for their requirements. ECoR has participated in the Expo for the last three years and has requested local MSMEs to explore its requirements. But only nine vendors have registered themselves till date.
Procurement of East Coast Railway is around Rs700 crore of which 41 per cent is from MSMEs. “Due to non-availability of local vendors, we are procuring from other States,” he said.
Among others, Director, Industries N Palai, director-in-charge, MSMEDI, Cuttack PK Gupta, managing director, CTTC, Bhubaneswar S Maity and president, OIA Abani Kanungo also spoke.