Business   

Imbibing lessons from the State

Kochi: Curtains came down on the 7th Commonwealth-India Small Business Competitiveness Development Programme on Monday, with the participants drawing lessons from the ‘Kerala model’ to tackle various problems encountered in their respective countries.

The Programme witnessed 63 delegates from 28 Commonwealth countries, including India, interacting with each other on a variety of topics. Describing the objective of the Programme, Ram Venuprasad, Adviser (Enterprise Development) of Commonwealth Secretariat, said small and medium enterprises were considered as a tool for economic development and poverty alleviation.

Elaborating the reasons for choosing Kochi as the host for the second time within nine months, Mr. Venuprasad said that majority of the member-countries of the conglomeration, irrespective of their size, faced problems similar to that of Kerala. They faced a lot of social issues and the socio-economic development model followed in Kerala was looked upon as a model for overcoming these problems, he said. Drawing attention to the similarities shared by Kerala and the Commonwealth countries, he said many member- countries were coconut growers, had nature-based resources like coir, and had lively handicraft and tourism industries as in the case of the West Indies islands. The Programme coincided with the India International Coir Fair and as such witnessed many positive outcomes as far as coir was concerned. As a result of the Commonwealth-India initiative, South Africa ventured into coir industry by launching the South Africa Coir Initiative. They started importing geo-textiles and coir pith from India, Mr. Venuprasad said.

Majority of the Commonwealth countries, though they were coconut growers, did not know many things about coconut. The visit to Alappuzha, considered a coir belt, was therefore educative in more ways than one. What the delegates saw there helped them realise how coconut could be effectively utilised.

The innovative use of coir products also caught the imagination of the participants. Especially, the delegates from countries located in desert areas evinced interest in coir pith, which has excellent water retention capacity, and coco lawn, he said. One of the participating countries was impressed by the coir machinery, which it wanted to utilise with slight modifications for processing their own natural fibres. The delegate from Kenya was very keen on promoting collaboration in the area of cashew nuts and held discussions with the Cashew Export Promotion Council.

A more significant development having an impact in the longer run was the willingness expressed by the Coir Board to engage with the other Commonwealth countries.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

NELP-VII launch on Dec. 13
Gloria Jean’s Coffees joins hands with Citymax
IBM relies on SOA for growth
Eicher, Volvo to form venture
NTPC to seek steam coal mines abroad
Sensex ends lower
Rupee steady
Bharti offers Rs. 2,650 cr. for spectrum
Attappady all set to tap wind energy
Imbibing lessons from the State
Exchange Rates
Bullion Rates
PM to inaugurate telecom conference
Tata Tele moves TDSAT on spectrum
BoA meeting rescheduled
Essar eyes stake in Kenyan refinery
ICICI Bank launches NRO FD Plus
Expo on energy conservation
DQ Entertainment ties up with Moser Baer
Gemini Communication pact with Univercell
Deloitte’s ranking for Take Solutions
Maytas Infra signs MoU with Vedanta Alumina

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu