Heads of industrial associations in Coimbatore and Tiruppur districts met Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay in the last few days.The Chairman and Managing Director of Lakshmi Machine Works (LMW), Sanjay Jayavarthanavelu, and Chief Strategy Officer K. Soundhar Rajhan, met Mr. Vijay recently.M. Karthikeyan, president of the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (CODISSIA), V. Rangaswamy, its vice president, M.V. Ramesh Babu, secretary of COINTEC, and V. Sundaram, director, of the CODISSIA Defence Innovation and Atal Incubation Centre, met Mr. Vijay on Wednesday.In a representation submitted to the Chief Minister, the CODISSIA said that despite the strong industrial base and substantial contribution of MSMEs to the State’s economy, timely and adequate funding continues to remain a major challenge, especially for micro industries. And data shows that funding for the MSMEs through the annual credit plan is declining.Further, the banks are reluctant to extend loans to MSMEs under the CGTMSE scheme. In Tamil Nadu, loans sanctioned under CGTMSE amount to only ₹20,000 crores whereas the total loans extended across India during 2024 – 2025 were nearly ₹3 lakh crore. Out of this, Coimbatore received only ₹2,116 crore, which is significantly low considering the region’s strong MSME and manufacturing base.The Association advised banks to enhance and ensure adequate credit flow to the MSMEs, particularly micro enterprises. The State government should form a committee with MSME association representatives and banks to monitor the progress of funds and the number of units funded.Chairman of AEPC A. Sakthivel and president of the Tiruppur Exporters’ Association (TEA) K.M. Subramanian also met the Chief Minister. The delegation sought the support of the State government for the growth of Tamil Nadu’s apparel industry and achievement of the $ 15 billion apparel export target by 2030.Mr. Sakthivel highlighted the importance of the apparel sector to the State’s economy as Tiruppur accounts for nearly 68 % of India’s knitwear exports and provides employment to over 10 lakh workers, with women constituting around 65 % of the workforce.Tamil Nadu has immense potential to emerge as a global hub for sustainable apparel manufacturing, he said. Published - June 03, 2026 09:55 pm IST