Bhubaneswar: The Opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has demanded that the Odisha government publish a white paper detailing the status of every Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed since June 2024, along with the actual investment made so far and the number of jobs generated by the projects.
The demand came amid the BJD’s criticism of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi’s five-day visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to attract investment to Odisha.
The party questioned the outcome of the CM’s earlier visit to Singapore and expressed apprehension that the UAE visit could also turn into a publicity exercise without translating investment announcements into projects on the ground.
In a statement, BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said Majhi’s first foreign visit as Chief Minister was to Singapore from November 16 to 21, 2024, where a roadshow was organised to showcase Odisha as an investment destination.
Mohanty alleged that no formal MoU was signed during the Singapore visit, although the state government had claimed that meetings were held with several global companies and that some of them had expressed interest in investing in Odisha. Nearly two years have passed since the Singapore visit, but Odisha has not derived any tangible benefit from it, he claimed. Against this backdrop, the BJD questioned whether the CM’s UAE/Dubai visit, which began September 8, and has been projected as the state’s second international investment roadshow, would produce concrete results.
