Minister Nitin Gadkari proposes e-commerce site for MSMEs at MSME Day and International SME Convention 2019

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jun 28, 2019

The Minister for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, Nitin Gadkari, said that the government is considering setting up an e-commerce site specifically for MSMEs to help them expand their businesses internationally.

"For the marketing purpose, I have already suggested to my department that we need a platform like Alibaba or Amazon where MSMEs are there and anyone in the world can access that and see what products they are offering," said Gadkari at the MSME Day and International SME Convention 2019 on June 27.

Many MSMEs are fashion, accessories, and textile businesses and a government e-commerce site tailored to these businesses could dramatically increase MSME exports in the sector. The government continues to promote an increase in domestic production in the textiles, footwear, and handcrafted apparel sectors in particular and has also undertaken several programmes to promote small-scale textiles and apparel manufacturers and businesses.

Gadkari said that MSMEs are needed to help India achieve its goal of becoming a $5 trillion economy. Foreseeing growth in the sector, Gadkari said that MSMEs in India’s contribution to the country’s total GDP will increase from 29 percent at present to 50 percent. Gadkari also said that employment in the MSME sector will increase from 11 crore workers to 15 crore workers. 

The International SME Convention 2019 takes place from June 27 to 29 in New Delhi and has welcomed 350 international business owners from over 95 countries and over 7,000 business owners for a business to business networking event. During the event, Gadkari spoke with the Ambassador of Japan, Kenji Hiramatsu, on fostering “mutual co-opration in infrastructure and MSME sectors,” Gadkari posted on his social media.  

Gadkari was recently inaugurated as the MSME Minister following the recent general election and he is also Minister for Road Transport & Highways. MSME Day is a United Nations initiative to promote small businesses which, according to the organisation, make up over 90 percent of all businesses worldwide.