Chief Minister Raman Singh left for a nine-day international official tour while leading a high-level delegation of senior Government officials and industrialists to Seoul and Japan to attract investments to Chhattisgarh on Sunday.
The tour was scheduled months back and is an effort to provide a major boost to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ dreams and also the State Government's very own ‘Make in Chhattisgarh’ campaign, a senior official informed.
The delegation arrived early in morning on Monday in South Korea's capital Seoul and was received by the Indian Ambassador to South Korea Vikram Doraiswami and other officials from Indian embassy at the Incheon airport.
The first day in Seoul was very important in terms of learning opportunities. In the morning the representatives from Indian embassy met the delegation on breakfast and briefed about the region. They also explained about the industrial and urban infrastructure development in Seoul. The infrastructure developed in the city is indeed world class, officials informed.
The delegation also visited Sungam Smart city and met with officials there.
The delegation found many similarities between Naya Raipur smart city and Sungnam city. The innovative use of information technology and data sciences for better delivery of public services were few of the learnings from the visit.
The Chief Minister met with investors in Seoul on Monday. The representatives from Sung Ha Telecom met the Chief Minister and agreed to put up its mobile manufacturing plant in Naya Raipur.
Sung Ha Telecom is one of the biggest companies in the used Cellular Phone market in Korea and have a very high-skilled experience in this field for 15 years.
The Chief Minister will be addressing Korean investors on Tuesday (May 30 ) in Chhattisgarh Investor Seminar at headquarters of Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency in Seoul. The Investor Seminar will be followed by one-to-one meetings with Investors.
Significantly, in April 2016, a host of key Chinese companies from Zhengzhou city of Henan province in China signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) worth 945 million USD (approx. Rs 6,600 Crore) for setting up a wide set of industrial projects in Chhattisgarh on the third day of Chief Minister Raman Singh’s ongoing week-long tour to China.
As per the MoUs, Chinese companies will primarily invest in manufacturing of solar power equipment, railway and building construction material sectors in Chhattisgarh.
The Zhongli Talesun Solar Company limited will invest about 500 million USD in cable manufacturing, real estate and renewable energy sector. This MoU will help in developing a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of solar cell and solar panel in Chhattisgarh.
likewise, M/s Chongqing Changzheng Heavy Industry Co. ltd. has also inked MoU worth 20 million USD for developing Station Wagon industry in Chhattisgarh.
Chief Minister Raman Singh after signing of MoUs participated in the 10th International Investment and Trade fair at Zhengzhou and addressed a gathering of representatives from 25 different countries.
He said that India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched ‘Make in India’ programme for creating an India that is one of the front line countries with strong Industrial and Financial sectors. Working on same line, we are promoting investments through ‘Make in Chhattisgarh’ programme, he said.
Singh also detailed about the development prospects and possibilities in Chhattisgarh.
Chief Minister Raman Singh in December last year had also stated that American entrepreneurs and NRIs have shown keen interest in 'Make in Chhattisgarh' vision created on the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' campaign.
Singh had shared his experience of 10-day tour to United States after returning from New Delhi to Raipur.
The Chief Minister was accorded warm welcome at the Swami Vivekananda Airport in Raipur by citizens, public representatives, officials of various organizations and Government officials .
On the occasion, Singh had informed that the main motive of his US tour was to promote capital investment in various sectors of manufacturing under 'Make in Chhattisgarh' campaign and to project Chhattisgarh as an inseparable part of 'Make in India' campaign at global level.
Singh said that he and delegation of State government attended Investors' Meet at New York on November 29, at Chicago on November 30 and at San Francisco on December 2. These meets were jointly organised by US-Indian Business Council (USIBC) and TII-Global.
In these events, more than 70 American industrialists, NRIs and CEOs of various companies participated.
likewise, the Investors' Meet in Chicago was attended by more than 60 investors and that in San Francisco was attended by more than 60 investors. American investors were invited to invest in Chhattisgarh.
In these events, Chhattisgarh Government's delegation had one-to-one discussions with investors about the wide scope of investment in non-core sectors of Chhattisgarh such as IT, defense, food processing, pharmaceuticals, solar energy, start-up and bio-technology.
The industrial groups with whom the delegation had discussions include UTS Global, E-Kisan Foundation, Global India Business Council, Vanguard Technology, Physician of Indian Origin, Cysco, Google and others.
In the Investors' Meet of San Francisco, three major MoUs were signed. On the occasion, Stanford University signed MoU with Chhattisgarh Government for exchange of teaching material, research, professors and students for educational purpose and also for creating awareness for prevention of rheumatic heart disease in Chhattisgarh. Wadhwani Foundation signed MoU with Chhattisgarh to promote entrepreneurship in Chhattisgarh, which includes providing employment opportunities and promotion of Start-up and SMI Eco-system for skill development.
Under the MoU signed by Spinta Global Accelerator with Chhattisgarh, steps will be taken to enhance professional competency and entrepreneurial skills in youth of the State.
Under the leadership of the Chief Minister, Chhattisgarh Government's delegation visited Digital Start-up 1871-Technical and Entrepreneurial Development Centre in Chicago, which was established to provide technical, financial and commercial assistance and guidance to Digital Start-up Business Community of Chicago.
A total of 400 High growth digital start-up works are underway in this centre. The delegation met the Chief Operational Officer of this centre Tom Alexander and had a discussion about developing start-up sector in Chhattisgarh. On December 2, delegation visited Google campus in San Francisco and met Vice-President Product Management Anjali Joshi and Group Product Manager Meenal Mehta to discuss about the scope of cooperation between Google and Chhattisgarh Government in sectors of health, IT and education.
On December 2, the delegation visited 500 start-up campus in San Francisco. Officials of Chhattisgarh met members of 500 Start-up Group and discussed about start-up ecosystem.
Chhattisgarh is among 16 states which had implemented the '340-point Business Reform Action Plan 2016' to design and implement an online single window system with functionality for online application, payment and approvals, the Central Government has informed.
The 16 States/UTs implemented this reform in 2016 are- Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, it informed.