New Delhi, Aug 21 (KNN) With a view to creating a platform to provide opportunities to clusters to go international and to lay a foundation for mutual partnership between German and Indian SMEs, an Indo-German SME forum will be held here in September.

In order to intensify this cooperation and provide a platform to foster linkages between public authorities, clusters, industry associations and other service providers from India and Germany, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) jointly with the Office of DC MSME, the Ministry of MSME, SIDBI, the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce and its Knowledge partner Sequa organized the first Indo-German SME Forum in 2013.

To continue this dialogue and to foster the development of an institutional mechanism the second Indo-German SME Forum is planned for September 22-23, 2014, GIZ said in a statement.

Indo-German SME Forum will focus on fostering dialogue and the exchange of experience between Indian and German ministries, SME clusters, Industry Associations, research and support Institutions with regard to Cluster Development as a foundation for Cluster Internationalisation.

The forum will provide learning and best-practices and opportunities for Cluster Internationalisation and an understanding on the German Model of Industry-Academia linkages.

An increasing number of clusters are looking for opportunities to go international. However, they are often not aware of both suitable platforms for international cooperation and funding opportunities, said GIZ.

The forum will give an overview about European and German Initiatives that could be adapted to the Indian context as well as platforms and funding opportunities that could be leveraged by Indian organisations, it added.

The conference will be addresses by top officials from GIZ, German Embassy, SIDBI and MSME Secretary, Madhav Lal. (KNN/SD)