Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said that Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) will play an important role in the job creation in the country.
Speaking at 'Laghu Udyog Bharati Rashtriya Adhiveshan' here, Gadkari said: "There are six crore MSMEs in the country. Out of them, 2 crore units have not registered themselves as MSME as of now. Till now 11.5 crore people have got employment in this sector. We have set a target of 5 crore new jobs from this sector."
"We have to work on achieving the target of becoming 5 trillion dollar economy set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the GDP growth, 29 per cent growth belongs to MSMEs. In export, there is 40 per cent contribution of MSMEs," Gadkari said.
The Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises said: "We have to increase our export and limit the import. We have to do maximum capital investment in MSME sector to create job opportunities."
He spoke people living villages. "Today 65 per cent people live in rural areas. At the time of Mahatma Gandhi, 80 per cent of people lived in rural areas.
"So we also have to think about reforms in rural sector which include agriculture, handlooms, handicrafts and agro-processing industries," he added.
( With inputs from ANI )