AHMEDABAD: After a slew of big-ticket investments with domestic and foreign giants stepping into Gujarat , the state is now attracting significant investments from Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) from across the country. According to state government data, a cumulative investment of Rs 700 crore has been committed by MSMEs in less than five months, during the period from April to August this year.

More than 300 plots have been allotted by the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) during this period, in the industrial clusters of the state. These include industrial estates located in Bardoli, Halol, Sanand, and Kalavad . According to state government officials, most of these companies are allied industries or vendors to existing major firms.

“When large-scale investments are made, it consequently brings in small-scale investments. Most MSMEs will either be vendors or even allied industries, which will complement the functioning of the bigger firms. This will help create the entire value chain in the state,” said D Thara, vice chairman and managing director, GIDC.

Top sources in the state government suggest that a given company would make an average investment of Rs 2-2.5 crore. GIDC is also getting lot of traction for the plug and play sheds that were created in different industrial sectors.

During the financial year 2017-18, close to 700 plot-allotments were done, out of which 20% were big-ticket investments while the rest were MSMEs. State government data indicates that some 21 foreign firms from countries such as Japan, China, Taiwan, Germany, UAE and South Korea , have committed big-ticket investments in the industrial clusters of Gujarat, since January 2017. After this, MSMEs are now showing interest, particularly in the automobile, food processing, fabrication, engineering applications and apparel sectors.

State government officials say that MSME investments will help generate employment in the state. “The investments made by MSMEs may be smaller, but the amount of jobs that will be created by these companies would be huge. A rough estimate suggests that this investment will support at least 25,000 families,” said a top official in the state government.

