New Delhi, Aug 31 (KNN) India and US have agreed to focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and would work jointly towards addressing the issues of finance and market access for the SMEs, Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a joint press briefing after 2nd Strategic and Commercial Dialogue (S&CD) between the two sides.

Penny Pritzker, Secretary of Commerce, United States of America and Sitharaman held discussions with the US and Indian CEOs on Tuesday morning and took into account their suggestions on economic development initiatives.

After the meeting, Sitharaman, in a joint press conference, said, “Taking forward innovation and entrepreneurship work stream, we have agreed to focus our attention on Small & Medium scale enterprises.”

“We would be looking at creating a platform for sharing of best practices and technology as also address issues of finance and market access for SMEs and thus promote their integration into global value chains,” she added.

The two sides also agreed on a programme called “Silicon Valley comes to India’ which will have experts from USA coming to India to interact with start-ups and provide the required momentum to Indian entrepreneurial eco-system.

Sitharaman said that both the leaders launched a transparent Government e-market place (GeM), developed by DGS&D.

“We have agreed to look at best practices exchange with GSA, Advantage which deals with Government procurement in the US,” she said.

The two sides have decided to work on best practices on procurement models and will look at collaboration between the Department of Expenditure and USTDA.

India and the USA have agreed to co-host the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India, which will bring together entrepreneurs, investors, educators, government officials and business representatives from around the world, creating new opportunities for investments, partnerships and collaborations.

A GES Statement of Intent has been signed for this event.

“We have decided to work together to see how US companies and investment bodies tap the opportunity of India’s infrastructure projects through mechanisms like the “National Infrastructure and Investment Fund”. Both sides will also facilitate collaboration in research in health sector, specifically focusing on non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular ailments, diabetics and cancer,” she said.

Taking note of the progress in infrastructure and smart cities collaboration such as the Smart Cities Business Development Mission to India, Reverse Trade Mission to USA by the Andhra officials, it was agreed that the USTDA will collaborate with the Andhra Pradesh Government for facilitating Integrated Master Plan Development.

USTDA collaboration with Ajmer and Allahabad to facilitate their proposal for the Smart City challenge stage would continue. The collaboration initiated for municipal bond with Pune would also continue. (KNN Bureau)