BHUBANESWAR: Claiming that investors’ sentiment towards Odisha is extremely encouraging, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said on Saturday the state is set to achieve its cherished goal of becoming a world-class industrial destination.
Speaking at the 93rd annual convention of the FICCI, state’s industry partner over virtual platform on the subject ‘Aspiring Odisha for Inspired India’, Naveen highlighted Odisha’s industrial ecosystem and growth in the last two decades.
He also requested the FICCI to nominate dedicated teams to work with the state government in sectors like food processing, chemicals, tourism and information technology to realise the goal of becoming a world-class industrial destination.
“To attract new investments in the identified focus sectors, our officials have held discussions with institutions and industries from Japan, Republic of Korea, the US and Vietnam to showcase the business ecosystem and investment opportunities in the state,” said Naveen.
Naveen said the state has been implementing path breaking technological reforms to reduce physical interface for availing government services.
“To reduce regulatory burden on industries, new end-to-end online systems for over 30 government-to-business services have been developed by various departments of the state,” said Naveen.
Naveen said to ensure prompt services to the investors, timelines for the services relating to investment have also been included under the state’s Right to Public Services Act. He also spoke on land bank initiative, dedicated industrial clusters and state’s leadership position in attracting live investments.
The chief minister said the new governance initiatives like '5T' and 'Mo Sarkar' have played major role in creating conducive business ecosystem in the state by inculcating professionalism and behavioral change in the state government agencies.
“Even during these difficult times of Covid pandemic, I am happy to inform you that Odisha has been able to attract new investments of over Rs 1 lakh crore across multiple sectors,” said Naveen adding the government is not just focusing on attracting new investments, but also on grounding the projects.
FICCI president and the managing director of Apollo Hospitals, Sangita Reddy, who also attended the virtual meet, also spoke about the investor-friendly industrial climate in Odisha.
While sharing their business experiences in the state, captains of industries like Harsh Pati Singhania, MD, JK Paper Limited, Sandip Somany, MD, HSIL and Subhrakant Panda, MD, IMFA lauded the business reforms initiated by the state government over the years.
A video presentation on Odisha’s transformation in the past two decades especially in industrial development and state seeking huge investment during pandemic was also presented during the meet.