Trade body to hold 2-day State-level conference in Hubballi from July 16

Bengaluru: The Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI), in association with the Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), would conduct a two-day State-level conference in Hubballi, over 400 km from here, on July 16 and 17.

Over 600 delegates from the district Chambers of Commerce and Industry from across the State would participate, FKCCI president Dr I S Prasad told reporters.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai would inaugurate the event which State Minister for Large and Medium Industries Murugesh Nirani and State Energy Minister V Sunil Kumar would attend, Prasad said.

“The conference will deliberate regarding the investment opportunities in the manufacturing, service and trade sectors, including exports and taking investments ‘Beyond Bengaluru’,” said the FKCCI president.

The event would give the new entrepreneurs and also the start-ups an opportunity to explore the possibilities of new investments in Karnataka and generate employment, he said.

During the event, there would be talks delivered from the heads of the departments and many agencies on policy initiatives of different sectors.

‘One District, One Product’, quality maintenance and improvement of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), exports from agriculture and food processing, food processing organisations, lending programmes of SIDBI for MSMEs and support for trade receivables for MSMEs would be discussed.

Prasad said the FKCCI entered into a memorandum of understanding with e-commerce major Amazon and was planning to organise State- and regional-levels training programme in the field of industry, service and trade to help the youth take up activities under e-commerce and get self-employed, he said.

The FKCCI is actively participating in all the preparatory programmes of the State government’s Global Investors’ Meet to be held from November 2 to 4, he added.

The FKCCI president appealed to the government to support industry by helping it to develop the FKCCI centre of excellence at Dobbespet Industrial Area to provide training in skill development in artificial intelligence, machine-learning, 3D printing, data mining and others.

He asked the government to defer levying GST (goods and services tax) on packing and labelling of pulses and cereals as they would be a burden on both farmers and traders.

The FKCCI chief said the government should announce a State-specific public procurement policy for the MSMEs and reforms in assessing property taxes.