IT SEZ game changer: Sanjeet Singh

he said that developers should now move to Tier II and III cities to disseminate similar benefits

Terming IT SEZs as "major game changer" in terms of employment and investments, a senior official in the Union Commerce and Industry Ministry today said developers should now move to Tier II and III cities to disseminate similar benefits.

 

Sanjeet Singh, Director, SEZ in the Ministry said the government was also concerned about the manufacturing SEZ and invited industry feedback on issues relating to doing business, assuring efforts towards a "holistic solution".

 

Addressing an interaction of Export Oriented Units (EOUs) and Special Economic Zones (SEZs) here, Singh said Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma "is extremely keen" that the SEZ programme once again achieved the heights it was designed for and recalled the recent SEZ reforms announced by the government to rekindle investor interest.

 

In this context, reforms had been introduced for IT SEZs, including doing away with land area requirement with the only requirement being minimum built-up area which has also been "drastically reduced" for most Indian cities, he said.

 

"The reasons (for reforms) is that we have seen that IT SEZs have been major game changer in terms of providing employment, in getting investment and of course boosting our exports.

 

"So we are looking forward to our IT SEZ  developers to now move into Tier II and III cities and disseminate the same benefits so that they could really reach deep interior parts of India," he said.

 

Singh said that the government was also "extremely concerned" about manufacturing SEZ and promised to have more interactions with industry representatives.

 

Underlining the government's intention to aid business, he said the industry should be more forthcoming and inform the ministry of any difficulty in doing business.

 

"I would strongly urge you (that) anything which is disturbing your business plans, which is standing in the way of you doing business properly -- kindly bring it to our knowledge. I am not saying that we have a solution for each and every problem that you put before us but at least once we are aware, a holistic solution can be attempted," he said.

 

There will be "definite endeavour" on part of the government to help them in doing their business much easier, and matters relating to central or state government departments or even policy issues could be taken up," he noted.