India, US to co-operate to promote SMEs

NEW DELHI: India and the United States of America will enter into an agreement for co-opertation in the small and medium enterprises segment of the two countries tommorow. The countries will sign a letter of intent (LOI) on Wednesday in New Delhi to promote small business strategic alliances and institutional co-operation. The development commissioner Small Scale Industries Jawhar Sir-car will sign the LOI with associate administrator for international trade of small business administration (SBA) Mr. Manuel A. Rosales.

The objective is to bring in investment and technology from rich American SMEs. This is because the size of American SMEs in terms of both investment and capacity is far more than that of Indian SMEs. Such a partnership with boost job creation in the country.

The two governments will develop a work plan to identify specific joint activities. These will include exchanging technical expertise and experience, sharing information on the small business programmes, products and services, facilitating business alliances promoting business linkages identifying invest-ment and commerce opportunities in each country. The two sides will also or-ganise joint trade promotion programmes, conferences, expositions, etc.

The ministry of small scale industries is also seeking to share the experience of the US SBA, particularly in the creation of specialized small business invest-ment companies (SSBICs), equity investment through small business invest-ment companies (SBICs), federal procurement assistance, research and devel-opment assistance.