More than four years after signing the MoU for a Chinese industrial park in Gujarat, the ambitious project — which is expected to boost Chinese investment in the State — will finally see the light of day, a top government official here said.

About 200 acres at Sachana village, 5 km from Sanand in the Ahmedabad district, has been procured by a private entity named the CASME Industrial Park Development Pvt Ltd, which is developing the Chinese industrial park there.

Land acquired

Rajkumar Beniwal, MD, iNDEXTb of the Gujarat government, said: “CASME (China Association of Small and Medium Enterprises) is developing the Chinese industrial park on their own. They have acquired 200 acres, and only non-polluting industries such as automobile and component makers, and steel and electrical manufacturing companies can function in the park.”

The State government is not involved in the land acquisition, and is only facilitating the industries that are coming to the park, Beniwal said on the sidelines of a China (Guangdong)-India (Gujarat) Economic and Trade Cooperation Conference in Ahmedabad on Friday.

The quantum of investment or the number of units likely to come up in the park were not revealed.

The CASME Industrial Park Development has a registered office in Ahmedabad with directors from China and India.

An MoU for the project was signed at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit of 2015. Sources involved with the project revealed that land acquisition and successive political churning in the State led to a delay in executing the project.

Now that there is political stability in the State and the Centre, projects such as this one are moving forward.

Trade meet

In his inaugural address at the conference, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said: “Offering strategic maritime location, pro-active, stable and transparent governance, business friendly policies, futuristic initiatives, and a firm focus on the goal-oriented development reflects in the State becoming a powerhouse of industrial and financial development.”

Leading a 50-member business delegation from China’s south-eastern province of Guangdong to India, Li Xi, Party Secretary of the Guangdong CPC Committee, said the bilateral trade and relationship between the two countries is reflected in the ties between Gujarat and Guangdong.

Gujarat has about 25-30 big Chinese companies already operational in various sectors.

“We have streamlined six ideas for enhancing the scope of relations between the two provinces that include turning the Greater bay area (Hong Kong-Macau-Guangdong belt) and Gujarat into a hot bed of investments for major sectors, including science and technology, education, electronics, people exchange, tourism, and cultural interaction,” he added.

The conference saw over 500 B2B interactions between Indian and Chinese companies.

comment COMMENT NOW