Bhubaneswar: Odisha has been ranked 14th in the Business Reforms Action Plan 2017 ranking, that is, Ease of Doing Business rankings, released Tuesday. Although the state has been placed under the ‘achievers’ category, along with West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, it has slipped three ranks from 11 last year. The annual business ranking of states and Union Territories is produced by the World Bank and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
Sanjeev Chopra, Principal Secretary of Industries Department, Odisha said, “We have made significant strides in implementing ease of doing business reforms with the compliance percentage going up from 52.15 per cent in 2015 to 92.09 per cent in 2017. The top 14 states are bunched in a close range of 6 per cent and there isn’t much to differentiate among them. It is important to see the ranking in the context of increasing competition among the states to attract investments. The latest ranking only strengthens our resolve to further intensify efforts to make Odisha one of the best investment destinations in the country.”
Chopra also said the state has been able to create an ideal business ecosystem for various sectors to flourish. “Odisha’s investor-friendly policies and the development of world-class infrastructure have received positive feedback from investors across the country. The state has seen a significant rise in attracting manufacturing projects with more than 118 large projects approved with employment potential of 1, 28,572 in the past 4 years alone,” Chopra said.
The state has taken multiple initiatives to enhance investment promotion preparedness over the past couple of years. These include institutionalising state-level facilitation cell, appointment of sector-specific nodal officers to handhold investors, identification of six focus sectors, regular domestic and international investor outreach through road-shows. The state has also focused on facilitating investments through technology-enabled interventions such as Government of Odisha – Single Window Portal for Investor Facilitation and Tracking (GO-SWIFT).
The government is also keen to provide employment opportunities in the state. Under Naveen Patnaik’s Vision–2025, the state is focusing on attracting 2.5 lakh crore of fresh investments and generating 30 lakh job opportunities in the state.
AP TOPS RANKING: Andhra Pradesh has topped the ease of doing annual business ranking. Telangana and Haryana are at the second and third positions, respectively, according to a statement issued by DIPP.
Others in the top ten are Jharkhand (4), Gujarat (5), Chhattisgarh (6), Madhya Pradesh (7), Karnataka (8), Rajasthan (9) and West Bengal (10).
Meghalaya was ranked last at 36th position.
DIPP in collaboration with the World Bank conducts an annual reform exercise for all States/UTs under the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP).
“A large number of states have made significant progress in reforms suggested in BRAP 2017,”
it said.
