THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
Economic Development Corporation of Goa has posted Rs 42.59 crore profit for the financial year 2015-16, which is Rs 10.59 crore more than it made in the previous year. This was announced by Sidharth Kuncalienker, MLA Panaji and chairman of EDC.
Kuncalienker said, “This profit is due to our core business of lending. We are even declaring Rs 1 crore dividend for our shareholders.”
A huge part of this dividend will go to State government, which holds 89 per cent stake in EDC. Apart from that, IDBI and union territory of Daman and Diu are other shareholders.
Kuncalienker continued, “This is the first time EDC’s net worth has crossed Rs 400 crore mark, which we think is a huge achievement. Buoyed by strong performance, we are declaring 7 per cent ex-gratia bonus for all our 86 employees. The ex-gratia bonus usually is 5 per cent.”
Kuncalienker also informed that EDC is associated with Agnelo Institute of Entrepreneurship and Centre for Incubation and Business Acceleration (CIBA) so that these institutions help EDC in finding genuine entrepreneurs in need of finance.
Agnelo Institute of Entrepreneurship and CIBA have a track-record in encouraging young entrepreneurs especially in the field of information-technology.
Meanwhile, EDC continued thrust on its flagship Chief Minister’s Rojgar Yojana (CMRY) scheme under which it provides finance to really small businesses like garment units, pharmacies, restaurants and even event management companies.
The average rate of interest on loans provided under CMRY scheme is as low as 3 per cent, which comes a huge boost to small businesses, which often find it very difficult to get loans from banks and other financial institutions at an affordable rate.
Kuncalienker said, “Under CMRY scheme, we are creating 3 plus entrepreneurs per day, which is much higher than what we were doing earlier.”
EDC also announced that it has launched its new website. Speaking about it, Kuncalienker said, “Our new website is easy to browse and is user friendly. Besides, it also works smoothly on mobile-phones. We have uploaded information about all our schemes on it. The website is multi-lingual as it works in Hindi, Marathi and English.”
Earlier in the day, EDC had its board meeting, wherein it reviewed the financial performance for 2015-16. Those present at the launch of the website were managing director Arvind Ghatkar, directors Sandip Bhandare & Ralph de Sousa and vice-chairman Santosh Kenkre alongwith chairman Kuncalienker.
