The Hindu Business Line : Call to make coir products globally competitive

Kochi, Aug 4 The Coir Board Chairman, Mr V.S. Vijayaraghavan, has called upon the export-oriented coir industry to make use of the financial and technological support being extended by the Union Ministry of MSME to remain competitive in the global market.

Training programme

Inaugurating the third business development services (BDS) training programme of the Alapuzha coir cluster, he said the World Bank-aided four-year project (2007-2011), being implemented by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), was aimed at enhancing the competitiveness and business development of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in areas such as management development training, domestic marketing and ISO certification.

Board to support

Stressing that technological upgradation and product diversification were essential pre-requisites of the labour-intensive coir industry for market expansion, both in the domestic and overseas sectors, as well as for employment generation, Mr Vijayaraghavan assured all support of the Coir Board in this regard.

Activities

The three-year old BDS project, implemented by Cluster Pulse, a non-profit NGO, has so far provided 50 awareness seminars and workshops for MSMEs in ISO certification, e-marketing, export management development and intellectual property rights besides extending short term courses on computer education and management development for the small-scale societies jointly with the Alleppey Coir Cluster Development Society (ACCDS).

Its activities also included generating greater awareness and stimulating demand for natural fibre during the International Year of Natural Fibre- 2009. It has worked in 78 clusters spread over various countries like India, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, USA and UK in association with global funding agencies like the World Bank, UNIDO, USAID and ILO.

The Cluster Pulse General Manager, Mr Mignesh Parekh, spoke on the scope and opportunities as a BDS provider.