News and Events

The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is taking several development initiatives for the benefit of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country. Talking to media persons here today, N K Maini, deputy managing director, SIDBI, said, "We are looking to set up credit facilitation centers in industrial clusters which would be set up in 10 clusters in the next couple of months. Overall 400 clusters have been identified and all the clusters would be covered this financial year." He said the bank is creating awareness of the benefits of Factoring services to manufacturers in the micro-small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector, who supply their products on credit terms to various purchasers in the domestic market with a view to assisting them in their receivable management as also providing them with finance against the receivables factored. Mr Maini said that there are 30 million MSME units in the country. With 70 million employees, the sector is the second largest source of employment. The sector Contributes 45 per cent of manufacturing output and 40 per cent of exports and maintains a higher growth rate of 11 per cent consistently even during crisis period. The growth of the sector is higher than industrial and overall economic growth, he said. He said that SIDBI is also targeting loan syndication facility for MSMEs. Under this scheme, rating agencies would be roped in and MSMEs taking help of the agencies hired by SIDBI could get loans at lower rates. It would take a few months for the scheme to be implemented, he added. Mr Maini said that the bank has also identified four niche areas where the bank would be focusing on lending. He said that the bank has identified areas including funding for MSMEs, targeting service sector, looking to promote industry going for sustainable development and assisting firms in receivable management service. The bank last year registered an overall growth of 17 per cent and now it is eyeing 17 to 20 per cent growth this year, Mr Maini added. (UNI)