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Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik held an investors meet here on Wednesday, ahead of the ‘Make in Odisha’ conclave in November, with the State highlighting low wages and land availability as competitive advantages to attract investment.
Patnaik said his administration has demonstrated its commitment to deliver projects on ground “using the mantra of teamwork, technology and transparency.”
New projects
“In the last six months, we conducted ground-breaking ceremonies of 50 projects, entailing an investment of over ₹17,000 crore,” he said at the function.
The State government had organised a similar event in Mumbai in August, inviting industrialists to the ‘Make in Odisha’ event in Bhubaneswar between November 11-15. Japan is the partner country this year.
Jindal Steel and Power Ltd Chairman Naveen Jindal and OYO Room founder CEO Ritesh Agarwal were among the industrialists who attended the meeting.
Jindal said Odisha has a lot of advantages such as better connectivity through ports, improved infrastructure and a stable government, and the group has invested over ₹45,000 crore in the State.
Friendly policies
The OYO CEO said that the State policies are investor-friendly and attractive, and the company has become a leading hotel chain in the State in the last two years.
SMS group India MD and CEO Marc Hoffmann and Shahi Group Chairman Harish Ahuja were also present.
In his address, Patnaik said Odisha is a mineral-rich State, accounting for 54 per cent aluminium production and the State government is preparing a Vision 2030 document for development of ancillary units in the metal sector.
Odisha is also a power surplus State where electricity generation has trebled and road network has gone up by 50 per cent. The port capacity has increased from 20.5 MMT to 190 MMT, he said. “Odisha has a visible start-up initiative; 250 start-ups have been registered and we are posed to be among the top three start-up of India by 2020,” he added.
Competitive advantage
Later, talking to the media, State Industry Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said the State has a competitive advantage over well-known investor destinations such as Maharashtra and Gujarat because of cheap labour, land availability and low cost of living. He said that dedicated sector-specific clusters and over 1,20,000 acres of land bank were available for industrial development.
He outlined that 65 per cent of the ₹2 lakh crore investment committed in the first make in Odisha event 2016 were under various stages of implementation.
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