Punjab Government on Friday claimed to have created a conducive atmosphere for investment in the state and big industrial and business houses have shown a keen interest to have a presence in the state.
Punjab Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa, while talking to reporters on the sidelines of first South Asian History Conference at Punjabi University, said that Punjab was gearing up for December 9-10 Investment Promotion Summit (IPS) in the state. “We would showcase our new innovative industry policy (at the meet) and, moreover, Punjab will be a power surplus state in the coming years,” he said.
A recent tour by Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to Mumbai was successful as several major corporate houses had evinced an interest in investing in the state. “The SAD-BJP government has created a conducive space for industrial houses in the state,” he said. He, however, said that it was difficult to forecast how much investment would come to Punjab during the investment summit.
Asked whether the investment summit would be on the lines of the ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ meet organized by BJP Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s government, Dhindsa said that theirs would showcase a different concept although he admitted that “the idea will be the same”.
Meanwhile, reacting to reports that capital was moving out of Punjab, as is being alleged by opposition parties, Dhindsa charged that state Congress unit chief Partap Singh Bajwa was spreading false stories in that regard.