MSME minister Giriraj Singh said on Tuesday that the sector is in the forefront of manufacturing, export and job creation.

Speaking at an event organized by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in association with the Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises and FICCI, Singh reiterated that the Public Procurement Policy wherein all Central ministries, departments and PSEs have to procure a minimum 25% of the total annual purchase or services from MSEs.

Of the annual requirement of 25%, 4% is earmarked for units owned by SC-ST entrepreneurs. In addition, 358 items are reserved for exclusive purchase from the MSEs, he added.

The minister said that the endeavor of the MSME Ministry was to constantly upgrade the technologies adopted by MSMEs to churn out quality products in order to make them marketable and competitive.

He said MSMEs were today in the forefront of manufacturing, export and employment creation.

This, he said, was made possible through measures such as increasing the limit for provision of collaterals free loans to Rs 2 crore, technology upgradation, cluster development vendor development and schemes aimed at extended financial benefits to SC-ST entrepreneurs, the minister added.

The Minister also said that as a result of the various initiatives under the National Scheduled Caste-Scheduled Tribe Hub (NSSH) launched in October 2016, the procurement of CPSEs from SC-ST MSEs had increased significantly to 0.52% from 0.04% four years ago.

He also mentioned that while the achievement target is 4%, the Ministry of MSME and all CPSEs are on the right path towards achieving it.