FIRST INDIA-TUNISIA JOINT COMMITTEE ON MSME MEETS

The first India-Tunisia Joint Committee meeting was held in New Delhi on April 8,2008 under the Chairmanship of Shri Dinesh Rai, Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises. The Tunisian delegation was led by Mr. Mohamed Agrebi, Director General Incharge of the Promotion of SMEs in the Tunisian Ministry of Industry, Energy and SMEs.

The meeting was convened in order to operationalise the Cooperation Agreement in the field of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises signed between India and Tunisia last year.

The Tunisian side evinced keen interest in various MSMEs in India, especially sharing of experience and technology in the field of Garment and Textiles, Electro-mechanical Industries, Food Processing Industries and Information Technology. Besides, cooperation in the area of incubators and BPO, Technical support to SMEs, Institutional mechanism for providing credit to SMEs etc. were also discussed.

The Indian side identified various possible areas of cooperation with Tunisia. These are:

i)        Capacity building for formulation of industrial development policy and institutional framework for SMEs in Tunisia based on local resources.

ii)        Industrial potential surveys and feasibility studies to identify thrust areas and opportunities for MSMEs in Tunisia.

iii)     Entrepreneurship development/skill upgradation training

iv)     Setting up of Vocational Training Centres, etc. 

Shri Dinesh Rai, Secretary, MSME asked the Tunisian delegation to take the benefit of the emerging MSME Sector in India. Shri Pravir Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of MSME explained the present scenario of MSME Sector in India to the Tunisian delegation through a presentation. Shri H.P. Kumar, CMD, NSIC also spoke on this occasion. 

Representatives of various Ministries and Institutions also attended the meeting.