Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME), K H Muniyappa Wednesday said that the prominent banks will establish more MSME specialized branches in East and North-East of India to address the finance related issues.

"Within 3 months, prominent banks should setup at least 1 MSME Specialized branch in every district to Eastern & North-Eastern India to address finance related issues of MSME units. Alongside, concerted efforts should be made to assist MSME in increasing scalability & performance, which will eventually help in increasing export & GDP of the country," Muniyappa said, while addressing a conference in Kolkata on Wednesday.

To ensure better credit flow aiming at success of the sector, he mentioned that the Government is implementing Credit Guarantee Scheme, where guarantee cover up to 85 percent on collateral free credit facility will be extended by financial institutions. Under this scheme, 11 lakh proposals have been approved & Rs 54332 crore has been sanctioned till April'13.

With a plan to increase the export and international acceptability of the MSME generated products, he stressed on undertaking more R&D initiatives which are expected to develop the acceptability & promotion of products.

"An amount of Rs 24000 crore has been disbursed by the Central Government as Development Fund, aimed at developing the infrastructure, R&D and developing export orientations of different firms," he said.

Addressing the inaugural session of the conference, Muniyappa spoke on the vital roles of the MSME sector plays in developing the economy in terms of GDP growth, employment generation and surging up the export.

The sector employs over 8 crore people through 3.6 crore enterprises producing over 6000 commodities. He said that the role of the sector in fulfilling the national objectives of growth with equity & financial inclusion is unquestionable. By contributing 8 percent of national GDP, 45 percent of manufactured outputs & 36 percent of export, the sector plays as a nursery of entrepreneurship and is recognized as the engine of growth by the central government.

The Indian Chamber of Commerce organized the National Conference on MSME Financing & Strengthening MSME Linkages on 24-25th July, 2013 in Kolkata in collaboration with Department of Micro and Small Scale Enterprises and Textiles, Government of West Bengal.

Objective of the Conference is to bring all stakeholders in a same platform & create linkages for fostering growth & development.

The Conference, termed as "Knowing Each Other", is a part of the initiative undertaken by the GoWB, a 5-day 'MSME Business Conclave' to be organized in Kolkata from 12-16th September 2013.

The Conclave will have 'Vendor Development and Ancillarisation' as one of the key themes to be organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce on 16th September, 2013.

Speaking on the finance issues of MSMEs', R K Dubey, CMD, Canara Bank said that Canara Bank is doing its best to address finance & related issues of MSMEs. "The bank has shifted its focus on less developed areas, where the concentration of MSMEs is much high. The bank has created customized products for the MSMEs & is providing loans with a low interest rate."

However, he felt that more efforts should be made to launch new & customized products, which in turn will help MSMEs grow financially.