Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that the efforts of the state government to make Himachal Pradesh a favourite destination for the entrepreneurs during last eight months have shown constructive results.The Chief Minister who was presiding over the meeting of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) here on Friday evening said that Himachal was a power surplus state and was also open for tourism round the year. The state was the biggest pharma hub of Asia. He said the developmental policies, single window clearances and persistent infrastructural development has helped the state in attracting the entrepreneurs.He said the state had potential of generating 27436 megawatt hydro power and so far only 38 percent potential had been exploited. The state has invited the private sector for 27 power projects having capacity of 2144 megawatt. He invited the investors to invest in sectors like tourism, power generation, agriculture processing, industries and infrastructure development for which the government would provide all possible assistance. He added that the government was moving ahead in establishing cement projects in Sirmaur and Chamba districts.
The Chief Minister said that various issues concerning the industrial organisations had been settled during the last few months and despite political opposition, various important decisions had been taken to encourage investment in the state. He said Himachal was among the top states in social and economic indicators and there was negligible corruption.He said the special industrial package given to the state by the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee helped in bringing industrial revolution in the state however the industrial sector suffered a lot after the package was taken back. He appreciated the industrial houses for their contribution in the development of the state despite getting less profit.Jai Ram Thakur said Himachal had tough geographical conditions and infrastructural development and connectivity were major challenges. However, after construction of 70 new national highways, expansion of helipads and completion of Chandigarh-Baddi and Bhanupalli-Bilaspur-Beri rail lines would go a long way in improving the connectivity in the state.Additional Chief Secretary, Industries R.D Dhiman in his presentation said that responsive governance, best social and welfare indicators, uninterrupted power supply at low rates, simple procedures and easy access to the Chief Ministers office make Himachal ideal state for investors.He said skill development had been kept in the top priority areas by the state government.
The state had maximum technical courses in the country where there were 8000 seats in the engineering colleges and the ITI network was also one of the best in the country and this was helping in making available the manpower as per the demand of the industries.R.D Dhiman said that 47,321 industrial units with investment of 28634.64 crores were functional in the state in which employment had been given to thousands of youth of the state. The government of India has recently announced industrial development scheme for the state.President of the CII, Northern region Sachit Jain said that Himachal Pradesh was progressive state in the industrial sector where congenial industrial environment encourages the investors. He stressed on making further infrastructural development, improvement in connectivity and taking more steps to facilitate the investors.President of the Himachal Pradesh state council of CII I.M.S Sidhu presented the vote of thanks.Additional Chief Secretary Dr. Shrikant Baldi, Additional Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Sanjay Kundu, Director, Industries Rajesh Sharma, Director, Information and Public Relations Anupam Kashyap and senior officers of CII were also present on the occasion.