BHUBANESWAR: With Odisha emerging as one of the key regional economies and having the potential to play a vital role in India becoming a 10 trillion dollar economy by 2050, the state needs to leverage its vast mineral resources and attract private investment in key sectors to provide the desired boost to the economy to take off.
“With a planned approach towards facilitating investments and creation of supporting eco-system across identified sectors and enables, the realisation of the vision of achieving a trillion dollar economy is certainly achievable by the state,” said the report on “Economic Possibility for Odisha” prepared by JSW and PwC India.
Drawing a parallel with the Hebei province of China, the report, which was released by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here on Wednesday, said, “Hebei is a prime example of a resource rich regional economy, playing an important role in the emergence of China as one of the dominant global economies.”
Although a large per cent of Hebei’s population is engaged in agriculture-related activities, the province similar to Odisha is rich in mineral resources.
The Chinese province constitutes about 1.96 per cent of China, but contributes about 4.35 per cent of the country’s GDP. It possesses 12 per cent of China’s iron ore but accounts for 23 per cent of China’s crude steel production.
The economy of Hebei is driven by heavy industries manufacturing and processing ferrous metals contributing to 22.1 per cent of sales output value and has been developed as China’s ferrous metal hub.
Noting that the State is uniquely poised towards taking a giant leap for growth of metal based industries, similar to Hebei, the report said, “Odisha, the hidden gem of India, being a resource-rich coastal state and emerging hub for education and creative economy, will play a crucial role in India’s growth,” the report said.
The State not only has 35 per cent of India’s iron ore reserves, but also 92 per cent of nickel, 53 per cent of bauxite, 96 per cent of chromite and 45 per cent of manganese.
It has the potential to produce 200 million tonne (mt) of steel, 15 mt of aluminium, 400 mt of iron ore and 250 mt of coal.
Equipped with abundant industrial land and other key enablers including policy and regulatory support, industrial infrastructure and logistic facilities, the state has all the key components in place to become the export hub for metal products.
In addition to metal sector, the report suggests the state government to facilitate investments in other key sectors like agriculture and food processing, tourism and creative industries, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), and women entrepreneurship to spur further economic development to achieve the target.