A delegation from The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) led by Chairman Pramod Agrawal participated in the second International SME Convention held in New Delhi yesterday on the occasion of MSME Day 2019. The delegation also included GJEPC’s MSME Convenor Manish Jivani and Northern Regional Chairman Ashok Seth, as well as Rajesh Vyas and Kamlesh Vyas of Mars Jewels.

The convention was inaugurated by Hon’ble Union Minister for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME)  and Road Transport & Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari who said that the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's dream of making India a 5 Trillion Dollar economy can only be fulfilled by ensuring the growth of the MSME sector in the county. He added that in the coming years it will be his endeavour to raise the contribution of MSME sector to the country's GDP to 50% from the present 29%, and ensure that it gave employment to at least 15 Crore people against the 11.1 Crore at present.

Other key speakers on the occasion were Hon’ble MoS MSME and Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries, Shri Pratap Chandra Sarangi and Secretary MSME Shri Arun Kumar Panda.

As many as 1,200 selected entrepreneurs from India participated in the convention along with 175 participants from 44 countries and ambassadors from 15 European, African and Latin American countries.

The GJEPC Chairman also addressed a panel discussion at the convention. He highlightedwthe initiatives taken by GJEPC to cater to the needs of the foreign buyers across the globe and pointed out that today we are number one in the world in cutting and polishing of diamonds with 13 out of 14 diamonds being manufactured here. He said that this year there has been some decline  in  exports, but expressed the confidence that in the coming years there will be an increase.

Agrawal also described various initiatives including the one being conducted by NCAER to map 300 gem and jewellery  clusters in different parts of the country so as to develop coomon facility centres (CFC)  with the support of MOC, which will give a boost to MSMEs by making available the latest technology and other services.

He also apprised the audience of several jewellery parks GJEPC is planning to start in various states, beginning with the one in Mumbai where 2,600 MSMEs are expected to set up their own units.