THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: World Economic Forum (WEF) has recognised the Kerala Green Hydrogen Valley project as one of the 13 leading industrial clusters, said Industries Minister P Rajeeve, who led the state’s delegation to Davos for this year’s WEF annual meeting.
He said the state’s outreach gave visibility to Kerala and boosted the investment prospects at the Invest Kerala Global Summit (IKGS) to be held in Kochi next month.
“The Kerala Green Hydrogen Valley project, designed to reduce carbon emissions across critical sectors, has been listed as the first in the list of 13 projects recognised by WEF.
We held over 70 one-on-one meetings with industry honchos at Davos and many of them showed keen interest in making investments in the state. They are expected to turn up for IKGS 2025 in Kochi,” said the minister.
It has been estimated that the demand for green hydrogen in Kerala is presently concentrated in six sectors -- refineries, fertilisers, road transport, water transport, chemicals and exports. The Valley anticipates an investment activity of around USD 30 million.
These projects span countries like Australia, Brazil, Colombia, India, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.
This is the first time that Kerala got a platform as part of the India Pavilion at the WEF, along with five other states. The minister said Kerala had one of the smallest pavilions and the delegates rented out a house to stay to reduce the cost.
“There were states that came with 100 delegates and booked two floors of a hotel. However, despite the space constraints, delegations from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Switzerland visited us. The Bahrain group is expected to attend the Kochi summit. One of the states has also shown interest in state-to-state collaboration,” he said.