BENGALURU: The Karnataka government is postponing the 'Global Investors Meet' (GIM) planned in November this year at Bengaluru due to lack of time to prepare, said Large and medium scale industries Minister Jagadish Shettar.

The state government had earlier scheduled to host GIM for three days from November 3, 2020. Speaking to The New Indian Express, Shettar said that due to COVID-19 outbreak and the induced lockdown, the state government "could not focus on it".  

"We were supposed to start preparations around February-March. We had planned to visit different states within India as well as outside India now. But due to the lockdown, we are not able to do the ground preparations including road shows. We need atleast six months to prepare. Due to inadequate time, we are postponing , but not cancelling,'' he clarified.

About the next date, Shettar said that they are meeting in the month of June where they will decide the next step depending on the COVID-19 situation. "We were supposed to start registration now, but nothing has been done,'' he added.

On the  Special Investment Promotion Task Force to woo multinational companies which are looking to shift their manufacturing bases from China, he said that the task force headed by Chief Secretary is interacting with concerned people. "It is under process," he added.