CHENNAI Dec. 20. The India Trade Promotion Organisation under the Commerce Ministry will initiate an exercise to identify small scale units in important sectors in Tamil Nadu for extending assistance in creating "success stories" in e-commerce competence under a programme developed by the International Trade Centre, Geneva (ITC-UNCTAD/WTO).

This was one of the two "commitments" the ITPO's programme coordinator, Vasantha Bharucha, announced today at the concluding session of the two-day `kick-off' of the E-Trade Bridge programme of the ITC for small and medium enterprises.

Dr. Bharucha said the clusters identified for the purpose included knitwear industry and Tirupur as a cluster, automobile components, electronics, tools, pumps and compressors (Coimbatore) and apparel. The leather industry, which was also export-oriented, had been excluded as its interests were being covered by a UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation) programme. The ITPO would prepare a master plan and present it to the State Government and the ITC for financial assistance.

The ITPO would open a desk at its office in Chennai to enable entrepreneurs to access the Internet and the ITPO's own portal, which provided more than 60 trade-related links, she said.

Vivek Harinarain, Information Technology Secretary to the State Government, said his department would organise an e-trade group, including officials and some of the entrepreneurs who attended the ITC E-Trade Bridge kick-off, to maintain and develop further discussions and solutions.

Osman Atac, chief of the Enterprise Management Development Service of the ITC-UNCTAD/WTO, said that in view of the limited resources of his UN-affiliated organisation, the ITC's role would be mainly in terms of bringing together various parties involved in developing e-competence among SSIs, viz., hardware manufacturers, software producers, governments, consultants, entrepreneurs and industry associations. He emphasised that e-commerce would become a matter of survival for small enterprises in the years to come.

The managing director of the Electronics Development Corporation of Tamil Nadu, Hans Raj Verma, said his organisation would be associated with the ITC initiative and be a tool for implementing the State Government's commitment to exploit the potential offered by IT for economic development.

During the two-day meeting in Chennai, a draft e-action plan for SSIs in the State was prepared covering four areas — policy, legal and regulatory issues, finance, technology and human resource development and mindset.