SINGAPORE: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and senior ministers from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have showcased the huge investment opportunities in their states for potential investors from Singapore.
Chief Minister Rawat along with Punjab's Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Public Works Minister Vijay Inder Singla and Uttar Pradesh's Industrial Development Minister Satish Mahana held a series of meetings with top Singaporean ministers.
They jointly led a delegation of 'Invest North' and met separately Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung and Communications and Information Minister S Iswaran.
The 'Invest North' summit is being organised by the Indian High Commission in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The CM and Indian ministers also met Surbana Jurong, the town planner which has done a master plan for Andhra Pradesh's Amaravati city.
Jurong's expertise was sought for the proposed township near Mohali, Singla told PTI.
"We have 5,435-acre land through pooling scheme for the new township "Aerotropolis" for which we are now doing a conceptual plan," said Singla.
Expected to cost USD 2.6 billion, a detailed project report is underway for the Mohali Aerotropolis.
Addressing the "Professional Diaspora Connect", gathering, the delegation also gave an update on the smart cities, saying some were in the planning stage while others were progressing towards project implementation.
Addressing some 200 members of the Indian business community, Badal said Punjab will be among the first to complete its smart city projects covering Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar.
"We are moving ahead in a significant way. Most of the infrastructure is being put up in the cities," said Badal, adding that Punjab offers peaceful industrial relation with least number of labour unrest.
To attract fresh investments, State Government recently came up with enabling policy regime and incentives such as rationalisation of the power rates from Rs 7.60 per unit to a flat Rs 5.0 per unit, he added.
Uttarakhand has been ranked amongst the best states in the country on ease of doing business and is the first hill states to simplify the processes for starting a business, said Rawat.
The state has today emerged as one of the prime destinations for investments.
The State Government has identified the land and infrastructure for fulfilling the needs of focus sectors such as renewable energy, Biotechnology and Information Technology, he added.
Uttarakhand has become a 'preferred Investment Destination' for large businesses due to the integration of a rich ecosystem, highly skilled workforce, high technical expertise, continuous innovation and business-friendly policies, added the chief minister.
On leveraging India-Singapore relations, Rawat highlighted that since both the countries have signed 8 agreements in the fields of training of public service officials, cyber, security, Narcotics control, and defence co-operation, Uttarakhand can be seen as ideal destination for setting up business in these areas.
Uttar Pradesh also offer excellent investment environment for national and international investors with availability of land, 24x7 access to power etc.
The government has accorded highest priority to the industrial development and growth, which is evident from the fact that during the Ground Breaking Ceremony in July 2018, projects worth Rs 600 billion were inaugurated after 4 months of their announcements, said Mahana More than 50 delegates from three states and the CII are in Singapore pitching for investments during the summit.
While over the years 'Invest North' has always been organised within the country, this year, the CII is organising Invest North in Singapore to promote Northern Region States of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh as the preferred investment destination and engage with the overseas investment communities.