By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Feb 19: Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma, on Friday announced that a corpus fund of Rs 125 crore will be constituted over the next two years as the PRIME Fund, in a bid to promote the entrepreneurs of the state.
During the PRIME Entrepreneurship Awards, which was attended by officials of MBMA, North East Small Finance Bank (NESFB), SBI, entrepreneurs and Meghalaya-based artisans, the chief minister, while lauding the efforts of MBMA, said, “It feels great to see the sector, which was left neglected for a long time, being given the attention it requires to prosper”.
“I am happy to witness our artisans and entrepreneurs getting the opportunities and the much-needed handholding through the Ateliers Programme and the PRIME Meghalaya initiative,” he added.
On the need to create market value for products from Meghalaya, Conrad said, “It is important to package, market the story and present the products of our entrepreneurs and artisans, so we can create value out of their products”.
He also expressed belief that through the initiatives of the state government, the entrepreneurship culture can spread its wings to different sectors and encourage the talented and enterprising people of Meghalaya.
Conrad also expressed gratitude to the banks for supporting entrepreneurs from the state. The chief minister also announced that the government will introduce ‘Chief Minister’s Music Award’ that will be conferred on a monthly basis to the musicians of the state.
CEO of MBMA, Dr D Vijay Kumar, who was speaking at the programme, said that the state government, through PRIME Meghalaya, wants to make entrepreneurship a preferred career choice for the youths and create an ecosystem that will enable easy availability of credit, technology, skilling, mentoring and access to markets.
“Our mission is to provide systematic and targeted approach through a network of prime hubs that will be a one-stop shop for different segments of entrepreneurship in the state,” he said.
Speaking about the Ateliers Meghalaya initiative, he said that the indigenous crafts of Meghalaya are under-marketed, and there is inadequate handholding of artists and artisans. He also said that a tourism store will soon be set up in Delhi to brand Meghalaya.
It may be mentioned that the PRIME Fund will provide a kick-start grant of Rs 5 lakh and Scale-Up Innovation Loans of up to 25 lakh to give access to credit. In the food processing sector, in collaboration with NESFB, zero per cent interest loans will be available for up to Rs 10 lakh, to support enterprises and entrepreneurs in the sector. Over 570 registrations have been made, with 280 profiles reviewed and over 40 loans approved till date.
With the support of the IIM Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP), incubation support is being extended to entrepreneurs including capacity-building and training programmes, co-working spaces, funding, and market access and visibility.
Awardees for the PRIME ID, Interest-Free Loans, MUDRA Loan Grant/Subsidy Recipients and Ateliers Meghalaya were felicitated at the event.
The Chief Minister’s e-Championship Challenge 2.0 and websites for the MBMA and PRIME were also launched during the programme.