Body set up to promote SMEs in Punjab

To integrate small and medium entrepreneurs with the global market, the industrialists of Punjab have set up the "Centre for International Trade and Industry"(CITI).

The CITI is planning to organise joint overseas missions for business promotion, buyer-seller meets, assist and represent small and medium entrepreneurs in trade fairs, exhibitions and virtual markets in the country and abroad.

The forum had been set up to provide information about business opportunities abroad and prepare small and medium enterprises to compete in the international market, Gur-meet Singh of CITI told Business Standard.

Despite manufacturing world-class products, small and medium enterprises face problems in marketing their products in the international market. They failed to optimise sales because of a weak marketing network, he said.

Headquartered at Mohali in Punjab, the forum also has offices in Canada and Holland. Within one year of its existence, the CITI has enrolled 100 individual members and 17 industrial associations across India.

The Assembly of First Nation (AFN) of Canada has approached the CITI to organise a trade and cultural mission to India. The AFN is the national organisation representing the first nations of Canada.

The CITI would organise the International Trade and Cultural Expo-2004 in November this year at New Delhi, said Mohan Singh another CITI functionary.

The CITI is planning to organise an agri-business expo in the UAE in December in collaboration with the Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board.

The 'Made in Punjab Trade Expo' in Toronto in April 2005, in collaboration with the Punjab government, will be another milestone for the newly-formed trade promotion body.