Trade, import, export for MSMEs: The MSME Ministry on Thursday announced two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) signed between India and Mauritius on cooperation in promoting the MSME sector of the two countries. Both MoUs were signed by the Mauritius government’s small business promotion entity SME Mauritius — one with Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII)- Ahmedabad and another with the National Institute for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (NI-MSME). MSME Ministry’s NI-MSME trains small businesses, individuals, and professionals for entrepreneurship development, capacity building, marketing, innovation, infrastructure development, quality management, and more.
The MoUs signed were part of the India-Mauritius 3rd Joint Committee Meeting on SME cooperation held on Thursday. The Indian side led by MSME Minister Narayan Rane and the Mauritius side by visiting Soomilduth Bholah, Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives discussed the potential areas of cooperation such as exchange of best practices and experiences in the development of the MSME sector.
The review meeting also discussed holding physical or virtual exhibitions and fairs apart from technological cooperation, encouraging business-to-business (B2B) collaboration through B2B meets, entrepreneurship development and training programmes, and partnership in different sectors including aromatherapy, food processing and eco-friendly businesses.
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“The shared values of democracy and inclusive socio-economic development make us natural partners in our journey to ensure peace and prosperity in both countries,” MSME Ministry tweeted quoting Minister of State for MSMEs Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma as saying.
The bilateral merchandise trade between India and Mauritius had increased to $786.72 million in 2021-22 from $690.02 million in 2019-20. In February last year, India and Mauritius had signed the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA), the first trade agreement signed by India with a country in Africa to cover trade in goods, rules of origin, Trade in services, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, dispute settlement, movement of natural persons, telecom, financial services, customs procedures and cooperation in other areas, the Commerce Ministry had announced in a statement.