New Delhi: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Wednesday invited business leaders to the ‘Make in Odisha’ (MIO) conclave to be held in Bhubaneswar from November 11 to 15. He was addressing the Odisha Investors’ Meet and Road Show, organised by the state government in association with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry here.
“Take advantage of our vibrant business environment and policies. Come and join the juggernaut,” Naveen said. He went on to elaborate on the work done by his government to promote industries in the state.
“Our natural strength lies in being a mineral rich state. During the last 18 years of my government, we have focused on enhancing the production levels of key minerals and value added products. Enhancing and strengthening infrastructure has been the priority of my government for over the last 18 years. Accordingly, our Port capacity has increased ten times to 190 million metric tonnes at present. Similarly, power generation has increased more than three-fold and road network has expanded over 50 per cent,” the CM said.
Odisha, he added, was the aluminum capital of South Asia, accounting for more than 54 per cent of the production of the country. “Currently my government is engaged in laying a road map ‘Vision 2030: development of downstream and ancillary in the metal sector’ to further vitalise downstream ecosystem of the state,” Naveen said.
The CM also held meetings with OYO Rooms founder Ritesh Agarwal, Bharti Enterprises MD Rajan Mittal, Varun Beverages Ltd Chairman Kamlesh Jain, and Oracle India MD Shailender Kumar, among others. During the meetings, he highlighted strategic advantages of Odisha such as low cost of doing business, incentives for investors, dedicated sector-specific clusters and more than 1,20,000-acre land bank available for industrial development.
A video on the experiences of entrepreneurs such as Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Tata group and Aditya Birla Group in doing business in Odisha was showed to the prospective investors.
Jindal Steel & Power Limited (JSPL) Chairman Naveen Jindal shared his own experience with the state. “JSPL has been making in Odisha for the last many years and has invested more than Rs 45,000 crore, employing over 50,000 people. JSPL’s 6 MTPA steelmaking plant in Angul is the largest in the state and 9 MTPA pellet plant in Barbil is the largest pelletisation complex in the country,” Jindal said.
Department of Industry secretary Sanjeev Chopra said: “The state is focusing on food processing and seafood, ancillary and downstream industries in the metals sector, textiles, ESDM manufacturing, chemicals, plastics & petrochemicals and tourism. The state envisions investment of Rs 2.5 lakh crore in these sectors by 2025 and generate employment opportunities.”
WEBSITE LAUNCHED: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the ‘Invest Odisha’ (www.investodisha.gov.in) portal that details policy, cost-of-doing-business and infrastructure related information to the investors. “The website goes beyond mere availability of information and engages with investors through a unique chatbot ‘Odishi’ which provides customised information to users,” Naveen said. The website also enables the investors to compare competitiveness of Odisha with other states and countries to enable users to make informed investment decisions.
FOREIGN INVESTMENT EXPECTED: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik met Japanese ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu and discussed investment opportunities in the state. “Japan has agreed to be the country partner and State Bank of India shall be the banking partner of this event,” Naveen said. “We are happy that Japan has agreed to be partner country. With this Odisha will get more mileage in Japan and among Japanese companies and also lead to investment by Japanese companies,” Industry Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said and added that the state could also expect investment from Germany.