Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Bengal government to further develop the micro, small and medium enterprises in the state.

Under the MoU, a project management unit will be deployed by Sidbi with the state government to support the latter in making interventions.

The key functions of the unit would include hand-holding MSMEs for onboarding on digital platforms for funding, marketing and listing.

The unit will evaluate the scope of infrastructure projects for MSME clusters. It will support the MSMEs to get collateral-free loans and incentives from governments.

The unit will co-ordinate the the rollout of various schemes for MSMEs .Sidbi will design and develop schemes, products and interventions and provide technical and consultative support to the state government .

The memorandum was exchanged by Sudatta Mandal, deputy managing director, Sidbi, and Rajesh Pandey, principal secretary of state MSME & Textile department, in the presence of state chief secretary Hari Krishna Dwivedi.

“We are working towards strengthening the MSME eco-system in the states. Sidbi would be placing an expert agency with the state MSME Department,” said Mandal.

Under the annual credit plan for 2021-22, public sector, private sector, regional rural, and co-operative banks have been set a target to disburse Rs 1.02 lakh crore to the MSMEs under priority sector lending.