Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday interacted with MSME entrepreneurs from the marble and granite industry in Udaipur, Rajasthan.

She was addressing an event organized by Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) at Sukher Industrial Area in Udaipur.

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While interacting with the entrepreneurs, the minister reiterated the government’s commitment to expand the outreach of banking services for the benefit of MSMEs.

She mentioned that in the recently announced Union Budget, there are a number of key recommendations for the MSME sector including expansion of the branch network of SIDBI.

As part of the budget announcements and to seek feedback from the field, the Finance Minister mentioned her intent to visit several MSME clusters with the illustrious land of Maharana Pratap, Udaipur being the first in the series.

Further, an MoU was also signed in the presence of the Finance Minister, between SIDBI and the Udaipur Marble Association which outlines a comprehensive plan to enhance the Association’s capabilities, including both hard and soft interventions.

As per the MoU, SIDBI will facilitate marketing efforts for Association members through buyer-seller meetups to improve market access.

Minister Sitharaman also visited SIDBI branch at Udaipur and held discussions with some of the existing customers of SIDBI and obtained direct feedback.

She along with the Union Minister of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Jitan Ram Manjhi, handed over sanction letters to some of the MSME borrowers of SIDBI.

While speaking on the occasion, MSME minister mentioned that the government was committed to bring the benefits of its schemes to the last mile with focus on micro enterprises.

He highlighted the rapid progress made by the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises in the last few years and the substantial enhancement done in its corpus through budgetary allocation.

The minister further mentioned that banks should pay more attention to supporting micro units and creating livelihood opportunities for the poor.

M Nagaraju, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Government of India mentioned that enhancing the lending to MSMEs is one of the key action points of his department and towards this end, the performance of banks is being closely monitored.

Manoj Mittal, CMD, SIDBI while delivering vote of thanks assured that SIDBI is committed for the promotion, development and financing of MSMEs and would strive that the trust reposed by the Finance Minister and MSME Minister is fulfilled.

He also mentioned SIDBI’s plans for the branch expansion of SIDBI as per the announcements made by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget.