Kerala govt to provide land for MSMEs

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 12 (KNN) In a bid to make available industrial plots for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) industries here, the Kerala government will soon come out with a public-private partnership model.

''Addressing the issue of land scarcity faced by small and medium scale industries, the state government is taking steps to make available multi-purpose industrial plots. The first such endeavour is getting ready in Vadakkanchery in Thrissur, based on a public-private partnership model,'' Industries Minister E P Jayarajan informed the Assembly on Wednesday.

The minister further said that 54,420 micro, small and medium scale units (MSME) were opened in the State after the LDF came to power which have contributed an investment of Rs 4,953.69 crore and created 1.9 lakh jobs.

''A total investment of Rs 1.3-lakh crore has been promised. Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) have been already signed for 32 projects, out of which 7 projects have started working on the ground. As part of improving ease of doing business, amendments were made to seven laws,'' He said while answering a question on whether the Ascent 2020 investors’ meet had paved the way for any concrete investment on the ground.

He further said that despite Kerala MSME Facilitation Act, which aimed dismantling the licence raj, secretaries of some local bodies were still unaware of this Act and have been demanding entrepreneurs to produce all licenses immediately.

''Steps will be taken to make the local body authorities aware of this law,'' he said.

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