The Bengal government has planned eight industrial parks for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in addition to the six being developed by private players.

State finance and industries minister Amit Mitra said the government will create infrastructure for MSME sectors such as leather, apparel and handloom, which are labour intensive.

“There will be eight government parks. These are in different stages of development. I am hoping for a huge employment generation from these parks, which will be completed soon,” said Mitra at the India International Mega Trade Fair organised by Bengal Chamber and GS Marketing.

He added that the parks would have facilities such as banking, export promotion and IT support.

“In the private sector we have new parks coming up at Jagadishpur, Mahishbathan, Barasat (expansion), Ankurhati and Kona. In Barasat 15000 people are working and in phase two, which is under construction, 20000 will be employed,” Mitra said.

Mitra said the government would explore ways to facilitate retail activities for small and medium enterprises. “One of the problems for small and medium enterprises is that they cannot retail on their own. So if they should be getting Rs 10 for their product, they are instead getting Rs 5. The industry wants creation of value chain ending with retail and have urged the government to help,” he said.

Citing an example, Mitra said garment traders from Metiaburuz lack the facility to directly showcase their products and if the state government can create a hub, they can directly retail their products from those locations.

This year at the trade fair there are 1150 stalls compared to last year’s 950. The participants include Afghanistan, Thailand, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Dubai, Pakistan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar.