MSMEs have key role in state’s industrial environment: Minister

Thiruvananthapuram: Industries minister P Rajeeve has said Kerala has immense scope and a conducive ecosystem for cost-effective and environment-friendly micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) that require minimal land compared to big-ticket industrial projects.
Rajeeve was speaking after inaugurating the state-level rollout workshop on the World Bank-supported Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance (RAMP) programme being implemented by the Union ministry of MSME, for scaling up MSMEs across the country.
"Like knowledge-based industries, the MSME sector has a pivotal role in the state's industrial environment. RAMP can be the biggest gamechanger in the MSME sector," the minister said. The grant from the Centre as part of the RAMP project will be utilised to further strengthen the MSME ecosystem, he added.
The minister said the MSME sector will be given prominence in the precursor events like roundtable meetings and roadshows planned ahead of the global investment summit to be organised by the department of industries & commerce (DI&C) in Kochi in Feb 2025.
Noting that the ‘One Lakh Enterprises in a Year' project of the DI&C has got wide acceptance, Rajeeve said around 2,75,000 ventures have been set up so far. "There should be a situation where each venture is coming up by leveraging the skill and service of educated women from each home. It is also necessary to consider special small-scale industries sectors as different clusters," he added.
In his presidential address, S Harikishore, Director, department of industries and commerce, said the RAMP project will help the state's MSME sector flourish further, besides developing skill sets in various sectors.
He said the Rs 107-crore grant received from the RAMP project will enable the state to largely scale up the activities of MSMEs. The RAMP aims to scale up the implementation capacity and coverage of MSMEs in the states, with impact enhancement of existing schemes.