BENGALURU: As the Karnataka government is planning to organise a Global Investors’ Meet in November this year, the Department of Industries has started making preparations. Soon, it will start a series of events, including roadshows in different countries, to attract potential investors.
The department is expecting an allocation for GIM in the budget, to be presented by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on March 4. The showcase event will be held at the Palace Grounds in Bengaluru for three days and the tentative date for the inauguration has been fixed as November 2.
Department sources said they are planning to meet ambassadors of various countries in New Delhi in early April to seek their cooperation for roadshows in their respective countries. A plan is being chalked out to hold a curtain-raiser at Davos in Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum annual summit is held in May. The state was to hold a GIM in 2020 and an announcement too had been made by the then chief minister BS Yediyurappa at Davos. But the Covid pandemic put brakes on the plans.
Industries Department officials said that they are likely to hold road shows in the US, Korea, Japan and European countries by August. “We have not finalised the countries. The planning is at initial stages,” the sources said. Within the country, roadshows will be held in metros, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.
The Department has already identified some of the land for potential investors and is looking at around 5,000 acres for new investors. The state now has 188 industrial areas, spread across 72,000 acres. Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani is keen on creating more jobs and wants to make the state more investor-friendly, the officials said.
When HD Kumaraswamy was helming a JDS-Congress coalition government, he had announced plans to hold a GIM in 2019. But soon after, his government collapsed and GIM was not conducted. After it was scrapped because of the pandemic in 2020, it was planned again for February 2021. But as the Covid second wave struck and as there was less time for preparation, it was postponed to November 2022.
Karnataka last hosted a GIM in 2016, which concluded with 1,201 approved projects and MoUs valued at Rs 3,08,810 crore.