Cabinet Minister for Industries and Commerce Punjab Mr Sunder Sham Arora today said that very soon, Punjab would have the best industrial policy amongst all states of the country. He said that the Punjab government is committed for the welfare of industrialists and that is why, it is being prepared in consultation with all stakeholders.Government of Punjab in partnership with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as institutional partner, Northern India Institute of Fashion Technology (NIIFT) Mohali as academic partner and Wazir Advisors as knowledge partner hosted the Punjab Apparel & Textiles Conclave at Hotel Park Plaza, here today. Mr Sundar Sham Arora was the chief guest on the occasion, while MLAs Mr. Rakesh Pandey, Mr Surinder Kumar Dawar and Mr. Sanjeev Talwar were the guests of honour. Mr RK Verma, IAS, Principal Secretary Industries & Commerce and Mr DPS Kharbanda, IAS, Director of Industries and Commerce and other top officials were also present on the occasion.While addressing the industrialists, the minister said that the new industrial policy will emphasise mainly on small and medium industry and would be ready in next 8-10 days time. He exhorted the entrepreneurs to come forward and invest in the textile sector and promised that all facilitation and incentives will be given to them by the state government as per the new Industrial Policy. He mentioned that the Department would conduct a number of such conclaves of all important sectors of the industry, identified in the Policy.
He also announced that the next Conclave on the Logistics Sector would be held on August 3, 2018 at Ludhiana. The Minister said that the objective of this Conclave was to understand the dynamics of the Textile Value chain from Fibre to Apparel so as to identify the gaps in the value chain which would initiate necessary government interventions to fill these gaps. The takeaways of the Conclave would be used for fashioning an appropriate strategy and way-forward in terms of Policy provisions by the State Government.The Minister stated that ever since the Congress came to power in Punjab, different industrialists have invested more than Rs 9300 crore in the state. He said that no industrialists are shifting their base to other states now and this could be known from the fact that 55 industrial units that had closed down in Mandi Gobindgarh few years back, are now operational. Besides, the state government has also given employment to 1.61 lakh unemployed youth under its Ghar Ghar Rozgar scheme.The minister urged the industrialists to follow all the set norms and assured that they would not be harassed unnecessarily by officials from any government department if they have fulfilled them. He stated that the VAT refund would be issued to all parties by December 2018.
On the occasion, Mr Arora announced that a new focal point would be coming up in Ludhiana soon as the department is already looking for land, besides a private Textile Park is also coming up in Ludhiana. He also announced that once cleared by the cabinet, the medium units with high load would also get electricity at Rs 5 per unit.Today’s conclave was divided into four sessions, namely “Creating Eco System for Making Punjab’s Textile Industry Competitive”, “Brand Building & Multi Channel Approach to Retail”, “Making Punjab Ready for Technical Textiles” and “Making Punjab Ready for Technical Textiles”. The Minister also released a report on the Apparel and Textile Industry prepared by Wazir Advisors.Prominent among those present on the occasion included Mr Rajinder Gupta, Chairman Trident Group, Mr D.L Sharma, Director, Vardhaman Textiles Ltd, Mr. Prashant Agarwal Joint Managing Director Wazir Advisors, Mr Iqbal Ahmed, Deputy Director, Textiles, Office of Textile Commissioner, Amritsar, Smt. Mridula Jain, Chairperson, Shawl Club of India & Managing Director, Shingora Textiles Ltd, GMDIC Mr Mahesh Khanna, besides several others.