Union Minister Shripad Naik inaugurates Defence Conclave 2020 Gujarat

New Delhi [India], June 26 (ANI): Union Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik on Thursday inaugurated two-day Defence Conclave 2020 Gujarat via video conferencing and said that strong defence capabilities would help the nation safeguarding the prosperity "generated in the last few decades".
Addressing the conclave, Naik said, "Strong defence capabilities would help the nation in safeguarding the prosperity generated over the last couple of decades and also protect key economic interests like trade routes and safety going forward."
"Focus on developing a strong domestic capability in defence would be a great economic growth impetus and also help in skilled job creation in manufacturing, a key need and priority for the nation," he added.
The minister said that the huge opportunity and clear vision of the Centre for the defence sector "have attracted the attention of not only a few large players but also a large number of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs)".
Naik said that the slowing down/saturation of markets in other sectors has also been responsible for directing their interest towards the unexplored defence sector which promises sustained business opportunities.
"I have been informed that there are already over 8,000 plus MSMEs who serve this strategic sector as tiered vendors to ordnance factories and defence public sector companies. There is a need to expand this base by hand-holding more and more MSMEs to participate," he said.
Speaking on the significance of Gujarat in its role in defence, Naik said that the state has emerged as an excellent infrastructure facility and can offer both forward and backward supply chain linkages to the defence and aerospace manufacturing sector.
"The growth drivers for Gujarat include its vast coastline of 1,600 kilometres with well-connected ports, the MSME engineering companies proving entire supply chain for the defence sector, premier educational institutes in management, engineering, design, research and development, infrastructure planning and world-class shipbuilding and repairing facility," he stated. (ANI)