15th GLOBAL SME BUSINESS SUMMIT


15th GLOBAL SME BUSINESS SUMMIT
Building Partnerships through Global Value Chains
19-20 December 2018, Hyatt Regency, New Delhi


  • “The Government of India has been working continuously to make Indian MSMEs match the global standards. The constant efforts have resulted in the improvement of our ratings in the Global EoD Branking and addressing the challenges faced by MSMEs in connecting to GVCs,” said Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Shri Giriraj Singh while delivering the keynote address during the inauguration of the 15th SME Global Summit organized by the Ministry of MSME in partnership with CII, on 19 - 20 December,2018 in New Delhi. This year, the theme centred around ‘Building Partnerships through Global Value Chains' and aimed to boost the global competitiveness of the Indian MSMEs by apprising them of the global trends, global practices and standards along with arranging experience sharing and B2B meeting with SMEs from across the globe.

  • The Global SME Business Summit, brought together visionaries, thought leaders, policy makers, academicians and corporate heads cohesively driving a singular agenda for scripting economic change, by connecting the building blocks of economics for India and the globe. The 15th edition of Global SME Business Summit unfolded the myriad contours of the world economy and defined the factors that will lead the Indian economy to newer heights by way of carefully crafted plenary session and numerous parallel sessions & round table discussions that formed part of the experience. The inaugural session was attended by Hon’ble Minister of MSME, Shri Giriraj Singh, Hon’ble Minister of Commerce and Industry, Shri Suresh Prabhu, Secretary, Ministry of MSME, Dr Arun Kumar Panda, Mr. Rakesh Bharti Mittal (President, CII) and Mr. Shreekant Somany (Chairman, CII National SME Council) at Hyatt Regency in New Delhi.

  • During the inaugural, Secretary MSME, Dr. Arun Kumar Panda, said that with the implementation of GST MSMEs have undergone huge transformational changes to their benefit.
  • Varied sessions and workshops featured the 15th CII Global SME Summit held in the capital recently, wherein industry professionals discussed how the integration of Indian SMEs with Global Value Chains (GVC) was the need of the hour for SMEs to come up the curve. Informative and concept based inspirational talks were held by senior industrialists/disruptive innovators/entrepreneurs, who are leading the way by leveraging technology for the ultimate benefit of MSMEs in India. These sessions were named as Disruptive Innovator’s Voice (DIVE) and planned as a single-speaker talk. The points of discussion were Digitization, Artificial Intelligence on Financial Analysis, 3D Printing, Internet of Things, Trade through E-Commerce, Block Chain and others.
  • Moderated by T K Arun, Editor - Opinion, The Economic Times, a session sought to understand the various ways in which government policies and procedural reforms could help in making such integration a reality. In sync with his views, Ram Mohan Mishra, Additional Secretary & Development Commissioner, Ministry of MSME shed light on aspects that were crucial to be considered for mutually beneficial opportunities to come by. Speaking on how SMEs need to be perceived, Radha S Chauhan, CEO, Government e-Marketplace (GeM), said that they should not be treated as single entities where one size fits all. Shreekant Somany, Chairman, CII National MSME Council said that a lack of skilled workforce, knowledge, adequate physical infrastructure and capital infusion are some constraints that inhibit the efficiency of SMEs.
  • Moderated by Alka Arora, Joint Secretary (SME), Ministry of MSME, the plenary session on Countries perspective of SME going global, witnessed participation from delegates of Zambia, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal. At the same session, Piyush Srivastava, Additional Development Commissioner, Ministry of MSME shed light on how 20 more technology centres have been set up to help MSMEs.
  • To put it in nutshell, the underlying message felt unanimously was that the changing landscape of global trade made it imperative for Indian SMEs to adapt and work around the challenges that presently restrict their growth.
  • The 15th edition of the summit turned out to be huge hit witnessing participation from 30+ countries such as China, USA, Zambia, Ethiopia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and others, 100+ SME delegates pan India, 20+ speakers from the Industry and the Government, 100+ B2B Meetings and workshops/masterclasses on SME focus areas.