BHUBANESWAR: The State government has decided to give a push to the MSME sector by adopting a cluster approach. As many as 82 clusters have been identified spanning diverse sectors such as plastics, textiles, pharmaceuticals, food processing, agro industries, handlooms and handicrafts.Of them around six to eight are already in different stages of implementation with the Plastic Park in Balasore and the Apparel and Hosiery Park at Khurda coming up at a fast pace. The State is exploring its best possible variants of innovation through research and development in order to bring in vertical and horizontal expansion in the industry while recognising the importance of MSMEs in employment generation, said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday.Inaugurating the Investment Conclave Orissa organised by ASSOCHAM here, the Chief Minister emphasised on a healthy and vibrant MSME sector that will not only create employment opportunities but also lead to development of local entrepreneurship and removal of regional imbalance. “There is a need to set up industrial estates and parks by the large industries where small enterprises can set up their units. Government and industry have to come together to plan and create such infrastructure at locations like Jharsuguda, Angul, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Dhenkanal, Kalinganagar, Paradip, Balasore and Rayagada,” he said.The cluster approach is essential to give a level playing field to the local enterprises leading to better utilisation of resources, competitiveness and market linkage. The clusters are being set up over land as low as 15-20 acres to as high as 200 acres. The Apparel Park at Khurda is being set up over 20 acre with 30-odd players, Industries Secretary T Ramachandru said.He also pointed out that it was the opportune time to set up industries for utilisation of the intermediary industrial produces. In the next half a decade, Orissa would produce 60 to 70 million tonne of steel and almost bulk of it would be exported. Aluminium production would be five million tonne and power production would be around 30-40,000 MW in the next decade. “We need to arrest the flight of these products outside by setting up end-product manufacturing units in different sectors”, he stressed. The ASSOCHAM has also recommended 16 clusters that can be developed in the State comprising cashew, bell and brass metal, powerlooms, rice mills, food processing, agro and forest produce as well as wood carving. Each cluster would have a potential of around 1,000 units with employment opportunity for eight persons per unit if facilitated with basic infrastructure, transportation and common marketing centres. These can create more than 3.8 lakh jobs.Among others, Industries Minister Raghunath Mohanty, Chairman, Regional Development Council, ASSOCHAM, Lalit Khaitan, Chairman of Electronic Council Anirudh Dhoot, President, L&T Limited, Shailendra Roy, Deputy MD, Monnet Ispat and Energy Limited, CP Baid and ASSOCHAM Secretary General DS Rawat were present.
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