Caught between various controversies, the State Government’s lack of effort in taking proper, systematic follow-up measures and failure in constituting a core team to take forward the projects have been cited as the main reasons for the failure of the state in tapping the full potential of the Emerging Kerala held a year back with much fanfare.
The officials of the Industries Department, who worked round-the-clock to put Kerala on the global investment map, point out that it was the lack of support from other government departments which led to such a situation.
The Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) is just a nodal agency. KSIDC’s role was to promote the projects and to work out the feasibility study and preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR).
“The projects that came up at the Emerging Kerala were from diverse sectors and it was for the departments concerned to carry forward the projects under them which unfortunately did not happen,’’ said a top official of the Industries Department. But, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that the success of the Emerging Kerala could not be judged by the investment that came in.
“The aim of the Emerging Kerala itself was to present that the state is ready for big investments. The Emerging Kerala helped in promoting Kerala as a major investment destination. Many projects from various sectors that came up at Emerging Kerala are progressing and the Youth Entrepreneurship programme launched during the summit is a huge success,’’ he said.
Though the KSIDC, in its status report, has come up with quiet a number of projects such as the Integrated Refinery Expansion project by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited worth Rs 1,200 crore and other petrochemical downstream projects such as Duncan-Goenka Group’s Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer Rubber Project (Rs 600 crore), Petrochemical Park near BPCL Kochi Refinery by Kothari Chemicals, Chennai (Rs 100 crore investment) and a Rs 220-crore plant of Deepak Nitrite, Vadodara, for cumene in Ambalamugal, Kochi, many other projects showcased at the event are missing.
According to former Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, it is unlikely that there is going to be any impact of the summit as there is no systematic follow-up measures. “The Emerging Kerala event itself was just a PR exercise to promote the Chief Minister and other ministers. In all the projects showcased, real estate was the common incentive. In a state such as Kerala, where land is a scarcity, there is lot of politics involved in it and it is no wonder that majority of the projects failed to take off. Even from the beginning, the Ministers were unaware of the projects being showcased and after controversies many projects were shelved,’’ he said.
Isaac said that everything was managed by the bureaucrats and the team itself had been changed. “The team that worked behind Emerging Kerala is non-functional now. There is no transparency and nobody knows as to what has been achieved from the summit though we are not against any investors’ meet, the former Finance Minister added.
