Destination Uttarakhand 2018 Investors Summit
Interacting with the media persons regarding the preparations of the Destination Uttarakhand 2018 Investors Summit at Media Centre on Friday, Chief Minister Mr. Trivendra Singh Rawat said that all arrangements for the Summit are complete. He said that in order to receive suggestions from the state’s entrepreneurs for the Uttarakhand Investor Summit-2018, four sectoral based mini conclaves had been organised on the various subjects including Ayush, Herbal, pharma and aromatic plants, tourism, wellness, film shooting and tourism, automobile and food processing in the month of July and August 2018, in the districts of Haridwar, Tehri, Bhimtal (Nainital) and Udham Singh Nagar. He said that in order to attract investors for investment in the state, road shows were organised in major cities of the country including Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and New Delhi in the month of August.
Chief Minister said that whatever suggestions and inputs were received pertaining to the policies and investment from the investors, necessary action has been taken by the government. In the road shows, while expressing their immense interest towards investing in the state, the investors had shows great enthusiasm towards investment in the agro and food processing sector, solar power generation, medicity, infrastructure, tourism and auto and foundry.
To promote investment in the hill districts of the state, the State Government is working on 13 Districts 13 New Destination. Through this, there is target to attract more and more tourists to the hills. Aromatic farming clusters are being developed in the hills through the Aroma Policy.
Organic farming is being promoted and food processing, floriculture, rural tourism, home stay, Ayush and wellness are all such areas where efforts are been made to attract the investors so that the villagers can get the economic benefits. He said that the result of these efforts is that the MoU of about Rs 80,000 crore investment in the state are under progress. Out of which, MoU of Rs 75,000 crore investment proposals have been signed. These includes MoU of Rs 27,000 crore in solar power sector, Rs 14,000 crore in health sector, Rs 11,000 crore in manufacturing sector, Rs 13,000 crores in tourism sector, Rs 5,500 crore in IT sector and Rs 5,000 crore in food processing sector. Chief Minister informed that not only this, MoUs have been done for investment in the districts, which includes setting up of total of 359 industries with investment of Rs 1638.57 crores. The district wise break up is 30 industries in Haridwar, 66 in Udham Singh Nagar, 31 in Nainital, 69 in Dehradun, 20 in Tehri, 38 in Pauri, 30 in Chamoli, 20 in Almora, 10 in Rudraprayag, 19 in Champawat, 11 in Uttarkashi, 11 in Pithoragarh and 4 in Bageshwar. These industries will provide direct benefit to 13860 local youth.
Chief Minister said that in the Investors Summit, we have given special attention to investment in hill and rural areas and MoU for more and more investment in sectors of tourism and hospitality, food processing, horticulture, floriculture, herb and hamstring, pharma natural fiber, solar energy and biotechnology have been done. This investment will not only strengthen the economic condition of the state but also strengthen the industrial environment in the state and will provide proper market to local products besides increasing employment opportunities. He informed that representatives of industrial houses like ITC, Reliance, Pawanhans, Amul, Vardhman, Hero Motocorp, C & S, Radisson Group, Iberex Expedition, Azure Power etc. are participating in the Summit.
Chief Minister said that investors of Japan, Czech Republic, Argentina, Mauritius and Nepal will also participate. Chief Minister said that the conference will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi on October 07 and the closing session will be chaired by the Union Minister of Home Affairs Mr. Rajnath Singh on 08th October. He said that Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways & Shipping Mr. Nitin Gadkari, Union Railway Minister Mr. Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Information Technology & Electronics Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Food Processing Mrs. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Minister of State for Tourism (Independent Charge) Mr. K.J.Alphons, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Mr. C.R. Chaudhary and CEO of Herbal Park Mr. Ravindra Chaudhary, will participate in the sessions focused on different subjects.
Chief Minister said that in order to promote investors and to provide job opportunities to the youth and to raise their economic status, for the first time, 10 new policies have been framed by the State Government by holding five cabinet meetings in the last one month. He said that the government has plans to make economic utilisation of Pirul, which is known as a waste product in the hills. After the inaugural session, eight sectoral sessions on the 12 focus sectors such as Tourism and Hospitality, Agriculture and Food Processing, Horticulture, Floriculture, Herb and Aromatic Plants, Wellness and Ayush, Pharma, Automobile, Natural Fiber, Information Technology, Renewable Energy, Biotechnology, Film Shooting, Infrastructure Development, Education, Skill Development and Startup Topics would be oorganised. Besides, in the form of country sessions, two sessions would be organised with the partner countries Japan and Czech Republic.
On the concluding day of the Summit on October 8, 2018, discussions will be held in the session on the various sectors including tourism and hospitality, manufacturing, education and skill development, agriculture and food processing, Ayush and wellness, film shoppting, MSME, startups, information technology and brainstorming would be held to explore new ways for industrial development. In the sectoral session, one session will be focused on film shooting, in which Chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification Mr. Prasoon Joshi will participate.
This is first of its kind initiate to bring global investors, policy makers and industrial establishments on a platform for economic development of the state. This Summit will provide investment and business opportunities to investors of national and international level in these areas.
State Government has provided several policy measures and incentives in each sector to promote investment. For the development and promotion of different sectors, MSME Policy, Textile Policy, Mega Industrial and Investment Policy, Film Policy is already implemented. In order to promote startups, the Startup Policy-2018 has been released in the state in the year 2018. Recently, just before the Investors Summit, to encourage investment in the state Mega Industrial Investment & Employment Promotion Policy 2018, Tourism Policy, Information Technology Policy, Ayush Policy, Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Policy, Aroma Park Policy and Biotechnology Policy have been framed and released.