Kohima, May 9 (KNN) Similar to the RBI town hall meeting with the entrepreneurs of the Badli Industrial Area in the national capital, the Rural Planning and Credit Department of the apex bank in Guwahati, held a meeting in Dimapur near Assam Border, to address the issues faced by the MSMEs in Nagaland.

The Rural Planning and Credit Department of RBI, Guwahati, has held the second town hall meeting in the North East region.

Town Hall meetings have been started by the RBI to bring all stakeholders of the MSME sector to have direct interaction with the bank officials, both private and public sector banks, to discuss about their issues, suggestions and grievances.

While addressing the meet, Regional Director, RBI Guwahati, S S Barik said that the push needed for the growth of the MSME sector in Nagaland is missing.

That is why the RBI is emphasizing on MSME as it promotes distributive growth; Barik was quoted as saying in a media report.

He also appealed to the entrepreneurs to approach banks (for loans) instead of non-institutionalised informal sources, which, according to him, can be expensive and exploitative due to their application of high and uncontrolled rates of interest.

He also said that the RBI is behind bankers and entrepreneurs and will try to see that more and more credit is diverted to MSME sector so it progresses in the North East.

The meeting later focused on the report of the survey on 25 SME units carried out by RBI in Dimapur, and produced data on challenges and opportunities faced by MSME entrepreneurs in Nagaland. (KNN Bureau)