Bhubaneswar: With an aim to create new job opportunities and boost economic activities in the rural areas, the Odisha Government has decided to set up District level Industry and Investment promotion agencies (DIPAs) in different districts.
The decision was taken at a high level virtual meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra in which Principal Secretary Industry Hemant Kumar Sharma outlined the proposal for extending IPICOL activities to district level.
Assessing the proposal, the Chief Secretary directed, “These agencies should be dedicated towards facilitation and hand holding of the micro, small and medium enterprises. They should operate as single-point-contact for all entrepreneurs and investors”.
It should facilitate them right from the time of project formulation and capacity building to financing, starting of production and market linkages. It would also facilitate them for availing different assistances from Government as per prevailing provisions, he said.
The Chief Secretary urged the Collectors to take proactive role in promotion of micro, small and medium enterprises in their respective districts.
“MSMEs are movers of economic growth and their promotion in the district will result in equitable growth”. Collectors were asked to provide descent office space in the Collectorates for setting up the units”, he added.
It was decided that DIPAs would be managed by three professionals under the direct supervision of the respective collectors. Those would be set up in different districts in phased manner with feedback and learnings about the functioning and outcome of the agencies from each preceding phase. It was targeted to pilot the intervention in three districts namely Ganjam, Sundargarh and Jagatsinghpur.
Principal Secretary Sharma appraised that first phase piloting could be started by the month of August. Then it would be extended to the districts like Angul, Balasore, Jajapur, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar, Rayagada, Sambalpur and other districts on the basis of learning from the pilot phase. Target was set to cover all districts by March, 2022.