Acting on Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s directives, the Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC) has decided to allow its industrial plot holders in focal points to utilize their premises for warehousing purpose and development of skill development centers, treating it as an industrial activity.With this, the state government has conceded a long-pending demand of various industrial organisations, including the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Mohali Industries Association.Disclosing this here today, an official spokesperson said representatives of various industrial bodies has been seeking liberalization of the policies to treat warehousing and skill development as an industrial activity in the industrial plots developed by PSIEC across the state.The move, which is in line with the government’s focus on ease of business under its new Industrial and Business Development Policy, will facilitate industrial plot holders to undertake a wide variety of activities which they will be allowed to treat at par with service sector enterprise. These activities would cover industrial/technical test lab, industrial photography, bulk courier services, blue printing/drawing/computer designing facilities, research & development in any field, tool room for facilitation of industry, media houses, printing, publishing services, industrial kitchens/catering services, engineering & design services.
The decision will help small industries economise on their operations and manage their affairs more effectively and efficiently by precluding the need for making separate arrangements for warehousing purpose, outside industrial focal points, thereby incurring additional investment.It may be noted that service sector enterprises are providing support to the manufacturing activities in the industrial estates/focal points. Allowing service sector enterprises in industrial plots would help in providing integrated support services to the entrepreneurs, who would not have to run to other places for procuring secondary facilities.This would naturally accelerate growth of MSMEs, start-ups, facilitate availability of skilled man-power, and bring synergy between manufacturing & service sector operations.Punjab, under the visionary leadership of Captain Amarinder Singh, is committed to boosting industrial activities in the state in a big way, to lay the foundation for long-term sustainable growth of the state’s Industry and Business. The latest move is aligned to this thrust of the state government, said the spokesperson.