Kochi, February 19 Kerala's "Year of Enterprises" project, the first industrial initiative, has helped launch more than four lakh enterprises, Industries Minister P Rajeev said on Thursday.
In a Facebook post, the minister said that Kerala, where only around 10,000 enterprises were being started annually earlier, witnessed a major shift after the launch of the "Year of Enterprises" project, initiated by the current government, with a target of one lakh MSME units per year.
He said the scheme successfully achieved the milestone of 1 lakh enterprises each in 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25.
With this, the state has crossed the four lakh enterprise mark in four years, he said.
According to Rajeev, a total of 4,06,178 enterprises have been launched in Kerala so far under the project, attracting investments worth Rs 27,133 crore and generating 8,65,287 jobs.
He said that a significant achievement of the project is that 1,28,663 women have entered the entrepreneurial sector through the initiative.
The minister also said the project received recognition from the American Society for Public Administration, one of the world's largest public administration platforms.
Kerala had received an invitation to present the "Year of Enterprises" project at the annual conference of the American Society for Public Administration in Washington, he said, but could not attend as the Union government denied permission.
Despite this, Rajeev said, Kerala's "Year of Enterprises" initiative has emerged as a subject of study globally in the MSME sector.