Domestic and international investors expressed a lot of interest on 14 February 2016 to invest in the state during the Odisha Investors’ meet as part of the “Make in India” week recently held in Mumbai. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik met the ambassadors of various countries and industry captains to showcase the huge business potential and highlight the conducive industry ecosystem in the state. Across all sectors, Odisha managed to get investment commitments to the tune of Rs 70,959 crore in a span of just four days of the event.
The Chief Minister met the Ambassadors of South Korea and Japan. Besides, Patnaik met investors from China, Japan, South Korea and Italy. During the discussion, Japan evinced interest to collaborate in the areas of sanitation, Information Technology and clean energy. In addition to this, Japan expressed willingness to collaborate in developing Bhubaneswar as a “Smart City”. Besides, Siemens, along with the Tata group, also proposed to develop the capital city as a “Smart City”.
Later, a Chinese delegation met Patnaik and appreciated the Industrial Policy 2015. China, one of the fastest growing economies in the world, committed to set up industrial parks in Odisha. The high-level business delegation appreciated the good governance in the state and invited Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to China.
Delegates of German car manufacturer Volkswagen also expressed interest to invest in Odisha. The Wolfsburg headquartered carmaker would visit Odisha to explore opportunities for investment. Sanmina Corporation, a global electronics manufacturing services provider based in the USA, will explore setting up of a Rs 1,000 crore facility in Odisha.
Apart from international investors, domestic manufacturers, too, showed interest to invest in the state. Consumer products manufacturer Ruchi Soya gave its nod to set up two new food processing facilities in Odisha at an investment of Rs 250 crore.
India’s most diversified company ITC also announced to set up its food processing business in Odisha. Similarly, Nestle plans a food processing facility and engagement in social development in Odisha. Top executives of Celanese, a Fortune 500 company, met Chief Minister Patnaik and discussed setting up of an ethanol plant at Paradip. Infrastructure major GMR explored opportunities to expand operations across all verticals. G.B.S. Raju, business chairman, GMR Group, said, “Odisha is on its way to emerge as the best investment destination in the country. The GMR Group will be investing an additional Rs 1,800 crore in Odisha.” Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, Kumar Mangalam Birla, congratulated the Chief Minister for providing a highly favourable business ecosystem for investors. Bibek Debroy, member, NITI Aayog, said: “Implementation of eBIZ by Odisha should be emulated by other states.” Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president Sumit Mazumder hailed the “InvestOdisha – the Mobile App” for investment facilitation. During the meet, the “Vision 2025: Odisha Industrial Development Plan” was also unveiled.
Showstopper
The Odisha stall at the “Make in India” pavilion at Mumbai generated considerable interest among investors and saw good footfall. To boost ease of doing business, the e-Biz portal (www.ebiz.gov.in) launched by the state covers 14 G2B services with a common application form and an integrated payment gateway. The online portal eliminates all physical interface for investment-related services to enable the investor set up an industry/business from the comfort of his office. The second reform initiative, also a first-of-its-kind in the country, is the launch of the Common Inspection Framework, a unique online portal, which will synchronise the inspections and random selection of industries based on their risk profile. The framework mandates random allocation of inspectors with the inspection report uploaded in 48 hours after the visit.
The state government’s portal gis.investodisha.org for industrial land and services is a GIS-based Industrial Land Use & Infrastructure Information System developed by the Industries Department. GOiPLUS is a web-enabled platform to provide investor friendly services and is accessible from web, smartphones, tablets and desktops.
