By Sandeep Pattnaik
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Bhubaneswar, 31st Oct: The fourth edition of Micro Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME) Trade Fair will be held from 8th to 14th January, 2016 at the State capital in the IDCO Exhibition ground at Unit-III here. This time the focus is on sectors like: like tourism, textile, handloom, handicraft agro-industries, food processing, marine products and renewable energy, official sources revealed. The Directorate of EPM will be the nodal agency for organization of the Trade fair.
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Industry associations including OSIC, NSIC, Utkalika and Bayanika etc and central institutions like CIPET, CTCC will take part in the said exhibition, according to Surendra Kumar, Secretary MS&ME.
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“The trade fair shall provide a platform for MSME producers, to invite business delegation from foreign countries through their embassies in India for popularization of Odisha products. Attempts will also be made to attract overseas entrepreneurs to invest in Odisha in the sectors like engineering, chemicals, metallurgical processing, marine processing, agriculture, tourism and textiles,” he said.
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Besides, buyers-sellers meet will also be organized to facilitate the marketing of MSME products in the exhibition. The budget estimate for this trade fair has been around Rs. 99 lakhs.
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Odisha trade fair has fared well in terms of increase in footfall over the years. 2013 itself has witnessed around 1.40 lakh footfalls, which increased to 2.67 lakhs in 2014 and further to 2.50 lakhs in 2015. Similarly, the business in terms of value generated has also considerably increased from Rs. 20 cr in 2013 to Rs.30 cr in 2014 and Rs.80 cr in 2015, according to an official data.
