Correspondent
A conference on Government e-Marketplace (GeM) under the theme “Governance for Growth” was held at Hotel Japfu, Kohima on Monday. The conference was organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and attended by entrepreneurs from across the State.
It may be noted that GeM portal was launched on August 9, 2016, for online purchases of goods and services by all the central government ministries and departments.
Delivering speech at the conference, commissioner and secretary, Department of Industries & Commerce, Kekhrievor Kevichusa said for central government, purchase from GeM has been made compulsory unlike Nagaland. He said the state was still at a level of onboarding sellers and departments as buyers. Therefore, more sensitization was needed on GeM not just for the government but for handholding the prospective sellers also, he added.
Kekhrievor said that GeM was introduced because central government faced a lot of problem in purchasing from DGS&D due to artificial or unrealistic prices, service delivery and after sale services. However, in GeM after sale service has been made easy, sellers from bigger cities have now tied up with local vendors who can assist them. Pointing out that there will be issue if the State go for large scale buying, he said state government was trying to bring local sellers on board first and buy local.
Kekhrievor said that through GeM, the Department of Industries & Commerce was interested in the handloom and handicraft sector to access the market beyond Nagaland without having a retail store in other parts of India. He therefore called on the local entrepreneurs and government departments to avail this opportunity to sell local and buy local, and requested the ICC for help and support in registration of local entrepreneurs.
Chief Executive Officer, Investment & Development Authority of Nagaland (IDAN), Alemtemshi Jamir while emphasizing on the role and scale that e-commerce will play in the growth of economy, pointed out that at present seven of the top ten world’s richest people were dealing in e-commerce business. He lamented that majority of the people were not aware of the implication or opportunities of e-commerce, and encouraged the entrepreneurs to register in GeM.
Jamir said that Yellow Chain was set up by IDAN for small business to sell their services and goods, and at present around 400-500 have registered. He said that some business were doing well in Yellow Chain and added it can become bigger with the involvement of everyone.
He further exhorted the young entrepreneurs to be more aware, efficient, absorptive, receptive and adaptive to the rapid changes taking place in the market economy.
Joint director, MSME Development Institute, Dimapur, Ministry of MSME, Government of India, Tali Longchar, IEDS explained the importance of registering in GeM. Numerous corporations and organisations gave virtual presentations on GeM.