UP minister Sidharth Nath Singh wants Walmart to train 50,000 entrepreneurs
By VIRENDRA SINGH RAWAT
LUCKNOW, Jan 6 (The CONNECT) - The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with retail majors Walmart and Flipkart to promote trade and leverage export potential in the MSME sector.
The pact with the UP Export Promotion Bureau will facilitate training and capacity building of the state entrepreneurs and exporters under the Walmart Vriddhi programme.
Walmart and Flipkart will support UP MSMEs to digitise their businesses and facilitate them to sell products through online retail. The companies will also help them to realise their export potential by partnering with Walmart's global supply chain.
Walmart Vriddhi was launched in 2019 to handhold 50,000 MSMEs in India over five years.
However, UP MSME and export promotion minister Sidharth Nath Singh urged Walmart to train and support 50,000 entrepreneurs in UP given the untapped export potential in the state, especially due to the flagship one district, one product (ODOP) scheme.
ODOP is aimed at promoting the indigenous industry and handicrafts in the state. It has also been lauded by the Centre as a sterling template for other states to replicate.
“The state government is now emphasising on providing institutional support to entrepreneurs to upgrade the marketing, research and packaging elements of their products to increase their export market share and tap new destinations,” Singh said on the occasion.
“UP MSMEs are being recognised the world over, registering record exports this year. The state is at the forefront of developing an ecosystem for the sector and helping them boost exports and venture into new markets,” he noted.
Commenting on the partnership, Nidhi Munjal, Vice President, International Partnership Services, Walmart, said, “We look forward to expanding our ongoing partnership with UP and supporting their efforts to build a robust MSME ecosystem, by providing opportunities to access online and offline markets in India and globally. We are committed to tripling our exports from India to $10 billion annually by 2027, and will keep extending our support to small businesses.”
