Govt bid to attract more industries

Chief Minister Harish Rawat has stressed on the need of preparing a roadmap for attracting more industries  based on the State’s resources, capacity and capabilities. He said this at the CII session on enhancing investment attractiveness of Uttarakhand in Dehradun on Monday. Inviting investments, Rawat said that Uttarakhand offers huge untapped potential in the areas of education, tourism, specially eco tourism and horticulture. He added that the State Government is keen to promote cluster based horticulture.

The CM invited industry to work with the State Government to assure 24X7 power supply. Appreciating CII’s recommendations, he added that improving connectivity and simplifying doing business process was a key priority of the State Government. Addressing the session, State chief secretary N Ravishankar assured industry of all support from the State Government.  He urged industry to work in partnership mode for the development of the State.

Delivering the theme address, CII northern region chairman Zubin Irani said that journey of Uttarakhand from being a virtually zero industry state to being an important destination on the industrial map of India has been remarkable.

With capital acquiring global mobility requiring nations and states to make themselves attractive to investments, Uttarakhand needs to keep pace with these developments, he emphasized. CII Uttarakhand State council chairman Manu Kochhar spoke of the contribution of industry in shaping the state’s economy, accounting for more than a quarter of the state’s GDP and 1/3rd of the increase between 2004-05 and 2013-14.

On the occasion the CM also released a CII paper of enhancing investment attractiveness of Uttarakhand. The paper makes recommendations for attracting investments in the state in the post concession package era. 

The paper recommends leveraging hydro power potential using appropriate technology and environmental safeguards for clean, green cheap source of power;improving power transmission and distribution infrastructure and focusing on energy conservation and promoting energy efficiency. 

It also recommends improving connectivity and leveraging industrial corridors, labour welfare measures and labour reforms and simplifying doing business.