NEW DELHI: The government has sought requests for proposal (RFPs) for setting up 20 MSME Technology Centres under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode. For the first time, private players will partner with the industry to provide technological, incubation, and business advisory support.
Establishing these centres will create additional capacity for skilling 4,00,000 trainees and assist one lakh MSMEs, which are the backbone of the economy and major job creators.
These centres will be built with an estimated cost of Rs 3,500 crore Pune, Coimbatore, Samba, Nagpur, Bokaro, Jabalpur, Rourkela, Bilaspur, Kopparthy, Rajkot, Thiruvananthapuram, Jhansi, Sindhudurg, and Ambala.
“We are expecting a good response from private players,” a senior official said.
The private concessionaires would have exclusive rights, licence and authority during the subsistence of to construct, operate and maintain the project for a period of 30 years. The last date for bid submission is December 26.
After implementation of the scheme, technology centres would provide skilling services to the employed and unemployed skill seekers of the catchment area on self sustainable basis. The services provided by these would help to enhance competitiveness of MSMEs, employability of skilled manpower, creation of new MSMEs which also lead to employment generation.
While most of the services provided by these centres would be on chargeable basis, concessions would be provided to various categories as per the Central/State guidelines and schemes implemented by these Centres.
The Project will be awarded to the bidders quoting the highest premium, and in the event that no bidder offers a premium, then to the bidder seeking the lowest grant, subject to a maximum limit of 50% of the estimated project cost.
MSMEs account for over 110 million jobs or 23% of the country’s labour force. They contribute 27% of India’s GDP, account for 38.4% of the total manufacturing output and contribute 45% of the country’s total exports.
Source: The Financial Express