Naveen Patnaik to tour Japan on Monday to attract investors to Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik is scheduled to start his weeklong official tour to Japan on Monday to attract investments to the state. Naveen, who will lead a 35-member high-level delegation, including government officials and industrialists, is scheduled to return here on April 11.
While some of the team members left for Delhi on Sunday to catch the flight to Japan, Naveen along with a few officers would fly in a chartered flight from Bhubaneswar to Singapore, and from there to Japan on Monday. Naveen will return from Japan via Bangkok.
Japan has been one of the country partners for the state’s business summit, Make in Odisha (MIO), in the last two editions in 2018 and 2022. The CM-led delegation will showcase the state’s investment potential and friendly policies to attract investments in sectors such as food processing, chemicals, plastics and petrochemicals, besides textiles, apparel and tourism.
Naveen will meet top industry leaders and investors in Tokyo and Kyoto from April 4 to 8. “The chief minister will conduct one-to-one meetings with potential investors, host the Odisha Business Meet Tokyo 2023, and hold an interactive meeting with the Odia diaspora in Japan,” industries minister Pratap Keshari Deb said.
The delegation includes chief secretary P K Jena, secretary to CM (5T) V K Pandian and special secretary to the chief minister Vineel Krishna. A business team from the state, consisting of members from steel, aluminium, textiles, food and sea-food processing, and green hydrogen and green ammonia sectors, will also accompany the delegation to explore opportunities for collaboration with Japanese business houses.
The delegation is scheduled to visit Kimitsu Steel Works and the R&D centre of Nippon Steel Corporation. The state government is scheduled to sign an MoU with ArcelorMittal/Nippon Steel (AM/NS) to get expertise of Japanese trainers in the proposed establishment of a high-performance gymnastics centre at the Kalinga Stadium with training centres in Puri, Rourkela and Jeypore.
The delegation will also hold a round table discussion in Kyoto on opportunities for collaboration between Japan and Odisha in the tourism sector, focusing on Buddhist and eco-tourism related sites in the state.
"The visit of the chief minister to Japan reinforces the commitment of the state government to promote Odisha as a favourable investment destination and strengthen the emerging economic and cultural ties with Japan,” a senior government official said.
Naveen had addressed an overseas investment summit at Dubai in June 2022, his first outside India, where the state had received investment proposals of around Rs 22,000 crore.