An American delegation led by Consul for Political and Economic Affairs Raj Wadhwani and Ayesha Khan , Political Specialist of the Consulate General of USA in India called on senior officials of the Commerce & Industry Department of Chhattisgarh here on Thursday.
In order to explore potential areas of partnership, the delegation was very keen to lay the groundwork for US companies on partnering the State and industrial units in Chhattisgarh, under Centre’s ‘Make in India’ initiative and wanted to leverage on the State’s strengths in “Ease of Doing Business”, officials stated.
A delegation from the same office, led by Thomas l. Vajda, visited the State last year on December 9 and this was the follow-up visit on the agenda of promoting Chhattisgarh as preferred investment destination in India to US-based companies operating in India or intending to operate in India.
In a meeting at the Mantralaya with Subodh Singh, Secretary, Commerce & Industries, Wadhwani congratulated the former and his team for emerging as one of the top States in India as per the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ ranking exercise carried out by the Government of India and validated by the World Bank.
He also expressed his keenness in promoting the State to the US-based investors for considering it as a preferred investment destination.
The meeting was also attended by Kartikeya Goel (Director, Industries), Saurabh Kumar (CEO, ChiPS), V.K.Chhablani (Special Secretary, C&I), and Rakesh Shrivastava (OSD, C&I) among others.
The Director(Industries) Kartikeya Goel made a detailed presentation showcasing Chhattisgarh’s potential, key strengths and investment opportunities in the State.
He also explained Chhattisgarh’s plan to establish itself among the top three investment destinations in India in the years to come. The presentation was concluded with Chhattisgarh’s expectations from the Office of US Consulate General.Goel requested the delegates to facilitate ‘Government to Business’ interaction between US-based companies and Government of Chhattisgarh through US-based business associations operating in India. Cooperation in the areas of skill development, innovation, research and development and business to business interaction was also sought.
Wadhwani in his deliberation assured full cooperation in facilitating business meetings and making Chhattisgarh among top three investment destinations in India.
He said that the Office of US Consulate General, would help organize a Business Conclave in Mumbai in partnership with American Chamber of Commerce in third week of January, 2016.The conclave will be focussed on Chhattisgarh wherein top US-based companies operating in India or wanting to operate in India will be present and made aware of the growth opportunities in Chhattisgarh.
He invited CM Raman Singh to grace the event.