Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that exporters are playing a crucial role in improving the economic growth and their contribution could be decisive in taking the Indian economy to five trillions as has been envisaged by the government of India. He said that despite few odds, the exporters also have a great responsibility to shoulder in building a new India for which they will have to work with utmost zeal and passion.He was speaking as a chief guest on the occasion of regional award ceremony of the Engineering Exports Promotion Council of India (EEPC), held here on Saturday evening.The Chief Minister said that the opinion of the world for India has changed over the past few years as the country is fast emerging as one of the strongest economy due to strong leadership at the Centre. India’s engineering export achieved new heights during last two years as country’s export grew to 81.02 billion dollars in year 2018-19 from 7.02 billion dollars in 2017-18. He expressed happiness over the fact that northern region has 26 percent contribution in the total engineering export of the country.Jai Ram Thakur said that the efforts are afoot to make Himachal Pradesh as the most favoured destination for the investors in the country. The government has been continuously working to improve the ease of doing business which has also been reflected in the ranking made by the government of India.
The state government is organising Global Investors Meet at Dharamshala this year with an investment target of Rs. 85 thousand crores in various sectors. The state has already signed MoUs for more than 25 thousand crores for which a high level delegation of the state met investors through road shows held recently both at international and national level.He said the state government is providing various incentives to the entrepreneurs and the performance of the state on the export front is growing steadily due to conducive environment available here. The state government has provided 57 bighas of land for setting up regional centre of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) in Shimla that would help to identify export potentialHe invited the suggestions from the industrialists present on the occasion for success of the proposed investors meet and also called upon them to motivate other entrepreneurs to invest for development of Himachal Pradesh in various sectors.The Chief Minister gave away the prizes to the winners of the northern region export awards to 84 winners in seven categories. He congratulated the winners for their outstanding achievements which also included some exporters from Himachal Pradesh.Chairman, EEPC India Ravi Sehgal appreciated the efforts of the Himachal government for promoting the export sector. He said that engineering sector is doing its best to improve the economy of the nation.Regional Chairperson, EEPC India Kamna Raj Aggarwala thanked the state government for its support to organise this event in Himachal Pradesh.Additional Chief Secretary, Industries Manoj Kumar, Director, Industries Hansraj Sharma and other senior officers of the state government were present on the occasion.