The two-day Coastal Business Development Summit, organised by the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) here, received investment proposals in the areas of hospitality, seafood processing, pharmaceutical sector, and agri-based industries in three districts of coastal Karnataka.
Summing up the two-day sessions of the summit here on Thursday, Capt Ganesh Karnik, Member of Legislative Council of Karnataka, said that 38 MoUs (memoranda of understanding) estimating an investment of around Rs 1,506 crore were signed for investments in these sectors.
These investments are likely to come into the region in the next one to two years.
Added to this, some entrepreneurs have shown interest to invest around Rs 400 crore in the business-to-business (B2B) sessions held on the sidelines of the summit.
He urged the FKCCI to initiate follow-up actions both at the investors end and at the Government end to make these investment proposals a reality.
Region-specific business development summits
Capt Karnik said that he will submit a proposal to the Government to organise such region-specific business development summits in the state, and congratulated FKCCI for initiating such a move.
SECTOR-SPECIFIC COURSES
Participating in a technical session earlier in the day, Prof G.V. Joshi, Professor of Economics at the Nitte-based Justice K.S. Hegde Institute of Management, said that the higher education institutions in the region should plan courses in tourism, infrastructure management, and food processing, as most of the investment proposals in the region are from these sectors.
Stating that many of research findings have remained at the level of higher education institutions, Prof Joshi said there should be a mechanism to transfer these research findings from the education institutions to the administrative machinery. This will help boost growth of many sectors in the region.
Dr Ramachandra Bhat, Professor at College of Fisheries, Mangalore, who participated in the technical session on fisheries sector, said that thermal power plants and rapid industrialisation are a threat to the fisheries in the coastal region.
The fisheries sector need not depend on international market for its growth as there is growth in domestic market also, he said.
However, he admitted the fact that fisheries colleges and other research institutes have failed in extension activities to boost the fisheries industry.
