Quality, safety and timely delivery. These will be the new parameters in the market for products, both for the domestic and the international market. This was one of the messages sent across to a group of potential exporters from the SSI segment.

The event was a two-day workshop titled 'Exports for SMEs' (July 27-28, 2001), organised by the Consortium of Electronic Industries (CLIK) and indiamarkets, and sponsored by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).

The workshop began with a session by Jawad Basith, President of CLIK and Director, Solid State Systems Pvt Ltd, addressed to potential exporters on quality as the need of the hour. He said, “Very soon, domestic markets will require the same standards that are demanded for export competitiveness. He explained that with rapid globalisation, the clinching factors would be quality, price, safety standards and eco-friendly products that can be delivered on time to customers.

A Vikraman, GM, SIDBI, spoke of the services that the bank offers SSIs and said SIDBI has innovative schemes, expansion and modernisation programmes for SMEs. He also said that old definitions of ‘SSI’ still continue and there has been no clear definition of it still. SIDBI is a proactive bank that is particularly sensitive to the needs of the small industry, he said. While much of the funds are routed through the SFCs for existing SSIs, the bank can be approached directly for modernisation and expansion plans, he pointed out.

Nayantara Kamath, Vice-President, Operations and Content, indiamarkets, said, “We in indiamarkets believe that events such as this workshop bring together manufacturers from the small and medium sectors on to a common platform. It arms them with information and skills that are essential to units that intend to export.”

The first day had session with themes such as ‘Why Export? Are You Ready For It?’ ‘The Art of Reaching Out to Potential Customers’ ‘Export Financing’ and ‘Certification for Export.’

Ashok Udupi, MD, Sheemo textiles (I) Pvt Ltd, who spoke on ‘Why Export? Are You Ready For It?’ made it clear that one has only to identify markets and work towards cultivating them to make a niche for oneself. Udupi exports raw material to central and South America that are tailored into garments for an export market in the USA.

The details of the services offered by the EXIM Bank to exporters was outlined by D G Prasad, GM, EXIM Bank. The standards required for getting a certification for export of products was explained by S K Manjunath, registered Lead Auditor, BVQI.

The second day was an interactive session with export consultant M S Vadiraja that had the participants reacting with question, queries and comments on Letter of Credit (LC), DOCDEX and the ‘Bolero Project’.

These are the two corrected last paras in the story: Speaking to indiamarkets, Shashirekha of Resistors Manufacturing Co said she had found the event interesting and was glad she came for it. She said she would tell her colleagues at office about the learning experience. Another participant said that he felt the resource persons had given good information.

D G Prasad, DGM, Exim Bank, while speaking at the seminar, provided an insight into the cultural ‘traps’ one could fall into while negotiating with people of other countries for exports. Other than language and cultural differences, exports involve a large amount of paperwork. This is in addition to timely delivery, managing logistics, quality standards, safety of products and the eco-friendly requirements that exporting of products demands. However, if international quality and global standards are met, then SSIs can not only export, they can even get loyal customers, he said.