Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday called upon the Ambassadors and representatives of various foreign missions and invited them to invest in the state and also to visit during the historic 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji.Presiding over a pre-summit interaction with foreign missions under ‘Ambassador Connect’ organised by Invest Punjab, Captain Amarinder also extended a personal invite to envoys from different countries to participate in Progressive Punjab Investors Summit-2019 to be organised at Mohali from 5th to 6th December.Delegates of more than 25 countries delegates comprising Ambassadors, trade organisations and Mission representatives from United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Qatar, France, Israel, Canada, Japan, UAE, Taiwan, Slovak Republic and Czech Republic etc attended the Pre-Summit Interaction.Captain Amarinder further that the summit would be a milestone in exploring the tremendous business potential, besides creating synergy between Punjab and foreign investors, for pushing industrialisation on fast track. He also asked the Ambassadors to send their teams of entrepreneurs, who were keen to invest in Punjab, as well as individual investors to participate in the Investors Summit.The Chief Minister said the state was moving towards greater industrialisation in a shift from the traditional agriculture based economy, which had already reached a point of saturation. His government had promoted ease of business with its new industrial policy, which is aimed at facilitating investors.This, he said, has led to winds of change as reflected in the fact that over Rs. 50,000 crore (USD 7 billion) investments had been firmed up since his Government took over in March 2017. The Chief Minister assured the investors of all countries of his government’s full support and cooperation to the investors, for setting up their ventures in the state, besides providing seamless and time-bound clearances on fast track mode.
He further mentioned that since MSME sector was the engine for socio-economic growth and the backbone of industrial development, the State Government had prioritized MSME development as a key focus area.Earlier, the Chief Minister had one-to-one interaction with the Japanese High Commissioner Kenji Hiramatsu, who evinced keen interest in promoting the tourism sector in Punjab. Responding to his proposal, the Chief Minister extended Japan support in exploring the possibility of developing a tourism site over an area of nearly 500 acres in Talwara, which abounds in natural and scenic beauty. The Chief Minister also invited him to explore potential to develop a technology hub over an area of 500 to 700 acres either at Rajpura or Bathinda and suggested that the proposal be further crystallised at the December summit. The Japanese High Commissioner also showed interest in setting up an Electric Vehicle Manufacturing in collaboration with world renowned Toshiba Group. During the meeting the progress on setting up of Centre of Excellence in IT Sector at Mohali also came up for discussion.In his meeting, UAE Ambassador Dr. Ahmad AL Banna apprised the Chief Minister that a mega food park would be set up in collaboration with EMAAR and a team from UAE Ministry of Food Security would soon visit Punjab to further finalise modalities in this regard. He also sought Captain Amarinder’s intervention to prevail upon the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation to get some flights diverted to Amritsar to ease the heavy air traffic at various other existing international airports, and thus boost trade and business activities between the two sides. Dr. Banna also apprised the Chief Minister that UAE based business groups including Lulu, DP World, Sharaf Group and BRS are already exploring business and trade opportunities in sectors such as food processing, logistics, urban infrastructure develop and healthcare in Punjab.
In his welcome address, Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh termed Punjab as a land full of industrial opportunities. He said that the State had undertaken a slew of progressive regulatory and policy reforms with an aim to enhance the quality of service delivery. He exhorted the foreign missions to come forward for business collaborations and tie-ups, besides forging technical alliances to catapult industrial growth in the state.Earlier, presenting a power point presentation on investment and industrial scenario in Punjab, Additional Chief Secretary Investment Promotion Vini Mahajan said Punjab, with just 1.5% of India’s land area, contributes 3% to India’s GDP. She said that Punjab is a manufacturing hub and the biggest producer of tractors, bicycle and bicycle component and hosiery woollen. Punjab was also a major exporter and had exported goods worth 6 billion US Dollar in over 200 countries during financial year 2018-19.On the occasion, CEO Invest Punjab Rajat Agarwal proposed a vote of thanks and promised full support and cooperation to the prospective offshore entrepreneurs and investors on behalf of Punjab Government.Prominent amongst other present on the occasion were Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Industries Minister Sunder Sham Arora, Education and PWD Minister Vijay Inder Singla, Sports Minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Advisor Invest Punjab Major B.S. Kohli, ACS Development Viswajeet Khanna, ACS Cooperation Kalpana Mittal Barua, Principal Secretary Tourism and Cultural Affairs Vikas Partap Singh, Principal Secretary to CM Tejveer Singh, Special Principal Secretary to CM Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, Resident Commissioner Punjab Bhawan Rakhee Gupta Bhandari, Principal Secretary Health Anurag Agarwal, Principal Secretary Transport K Shiva Prasad, Principal Secretary Higher Education Anurag Verma, CEO Invest Punjab Rajat Agrawal and Director Industries C Sibin.