Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said that the government will focus more on ensuring adequate support to enterprises to promote sustainable entrepreneurship. This follows the government’s initiative to promote an entrepreneurial-friendly ecosystem in the State.
The Chief Minister was interacting with members of the Group of Technology Companies (GTech), the industry body of information technology (IT) companies in Kerala, at their Leaders’ Meet here on Thursday.
He said his government would derive a scheme to benefit start-ups who were looking for a second phase of funding, after graduating from incubation centres. Currently, the Kerala Financial Corporation offers a collateral-free loan of a maximum of Rs.20 lakh to start-ups.
“The IT industry provides huge employment opportunities for the youth of the State. Hence, the ecosystem needs to be scaled up and e-governance strengthened to widen the industrial base. It is important that the government allocates a higher amount in the forthcoming State budget for IT. We are hopeful of a positive response,” V.K. Mathews, chairman, GTech, said.
Mr. Chandy said the government would consider allocating a marketing corpus of Rs.5 crore to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to promote sustainable business development activities. He also promised to consider more funds for the construction of Saraswathy, a new building at Technopark.
GTech also took up issues of social infrastructure development and the need for more effective mass transit systems in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi.
