Industries Minister P. Rajeeve has said that a statutory redressal mechanism to settle issues related to industries and a recruitment board for appointments to State public sector undertakings are among the areas the industries ministry will work on immediately.
He told The Hindu on Tuesday that the first Cabinet meeting of the new government had already taken a decision on establishing a statutory redressal mechanism and that a report was expected to be ready within a month. He said that the second Pinarayi Vijayan government is keen to woo investments and generate substantial number of jobs over the next five years.
One of the focus areas of the industries ministry over the coming five years would be to bring Kerala to the top of the list of States in the country in terms of ease of doing business. The efforts to improve the climate for investment is tied to the government efforts to generate jobs, he said.
At present Kerala stands 18th among the States in the country in terms of ease of doing business. The investment atmosphere in the State is expected to undergo positive changes and all hindrances that hold up investments will be removed as the government is keen to see that investments are not held up because of any procedural delays.
Mr. Rajeeve also said that the second Pinarayi government also wanted to focus on agricultural enterprises in the State. Agripreneurship needs to be encouraged in a State that has a rich array of resources in the area.
Besides, Mr. Rajeeve said that the micro, small and medium enterprises, needed to be given a boost especially in the background of the COVID-19 spread. He said that the MSMEs had taken a hard beating owing to the pandemic and the government is aware of the hard times the industries are going though.
The new government has also earmarked several major projects as flagship ventures of the State. These include the Kochi-Coimbatore industrial corridor project and the petrochemicals complex coming up at the Ambalamugal campus, close to Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore. The government is also gearing up to launch works on HNL, which has been taken over by the State government.
Besides industries, Mr. Rajeeve has also been given charge of the cashew and coir industries. Besides, he will also look after the plantations sector, which has been brought under the industries segment. The shift is expected to give a big boost to the ailing sector. The proposal for shifting control of the plantation sector from the Labour Department has been a long-pending one.
Mr. Rajeeve said that a new directorate for the plantation sector would be constituted soon.
