British delegation comes calling to invest in Kerala

In a major boost to the ‘Emerging Kerala’ Global Connect campaign, Britain has shown keen interest in some big-ticket projects in the core sectors of the state. A high-level British delegation visited Kerala on Wednesday and assured that project profiles of the state would be made available to the major business houses there.

Mike Nithavrianakis, British deputy high commissioner in Chennai, held a string of high-level meetings with chief minister Oommen Chandy and senior officials to discuss investment opportunities that Kerala has planned in the core sectors.

The Kerala team apprised him of a number of major upcoming projects, including NIMZ (National Investment Manufacturing Zone), development of minor ports, excellence in higher education, LNG-based power plants and development of inland waterways.

“The British officials expressed keen interest in the projects and also promised to share these project profiles with top companies in the UK,” said V Somasundaran, additional chief secretary (industries).

Plans are also on the anvil to bring in someone from the ministerial level from the UK for the Emerging Kerala Summit, he added.

In particular, the British team evinced interest in sectors like information technology, healthcare, infrastructure and education, which incidentally are the core sectors of the ‘Emerging Kerala’ Global Connect event. The event will be held in Kochi in September this year.

The British team held separate meetings with K Jayakumar, chief secretary, Rajeev Sadanandan, principal secretary (health), and TK Manoj Kumar, principal secretary (tourism).

Parleys were also held with the chief executive officer of Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited, managing director of Kochi Metro Rail and the director of Asian School of Business. The team also visited Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram and Technocity in Pallipuram to get first-hand knowledge of the activities and business opportunities there.

Singapore, Taiwan and Canada have already shown interest in Kerala with a number of investment proposals. The interest shown by Britain will give a major fillip to achieving the objectives of the ‘Emerging Kerala’ branding exercise.