WATCH: Nitin Gadkari states intent to increase MSMEs' contribution to India's GDP from 29% to 50%, reveals employment goals

Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the MSME Day 2019 celebrations and said that boosting the aforementioned sector is important to reach Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal of making India a 5 trillion dollar economy.

"Narendra Modi's dream of making India a five trillion dollar economy can only be fulfilled by ensuring the growth of the MSME sector in the county. It will be my endeavour to raise the contribution of MSME sector to the country's GDP to 50 per cent from the present 29 per cent, and ensure that it gave employment to at least 15 crore people against the 11.1 crore at present," Gadkari said at the event on Thursday.

He stressed upon the need for research and innovation in the MSME sector and said collaborating with global entities will bring in the latest technology in the sector.

"There is an urgent need to encourage research and innovation in the sector, to collaborate with global entities to bring in the latest technology and best practices and also promote marketing. We are thinking of creating a new website where people can post new ideas, suggestions and innovations. This will help develop a bank of innovation and ideas where all stakeholders can share their suggestions, technologies," he said. 

Nitin Gadkari also shared a video on his Twitter:

The Union Minister also said that there are plans to develop a portal for creating a market place like Alibaba where all stakeholders can find the demand and supply inputs. Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Minister of State (MoS) MSME and Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries, Secretary MSME Arun Kumar Panda were also present at the event. The Minister also gave away awards to 100 SMEs selected by a jury from among 34011 nominations from across India are also being felicitated under the egis of the 6th Annual India SME 100 Awards.

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1200 selected entrepreneurs from India are participating in the convention. 175 participants from 44 countries and ambassadors from 15 European, African and Latin American countries are also attending the convention. The participating countries include Bahrain, Maldives, Italy, Hungary, Austria, San Marino, Sri Lanka , USA, Portugal, UAE and Saudi Arabia among others.

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