Make in Odisha: State pockets Rs 2.03 lakh crore investment intentions

The proposed investments have the potential to generate 140,000 jobs for the people of the state, says Naveen Patnaik

The curtains came down on 'Make in Odisha' conclave, the three-day showpiece event, with the state receiving investment intentions of the order of Rs 2,03,370 crore across 10 sectors.
 

Though the mines & mineral sector where the state's traditional strength lies was not chosen as the focus for the conclave, it managed to attract almost 50% of the new investments. Apart from minerals, investment intents also poured in from emerging areas like IT & electronics manufacturing tourism, petrochemicals, chemicals & plastics and food processing.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that the state got an overwhelming response from the industry at the conclave. "More importantly for the state, these proposed investments have the potential to generate 140,000 jobs for the people of the state," he said.

Enthused by the tremendous response, Odisha has decided to organise such a conclave biennially as it strives to achieve its Vision 2025 Goal. According to this vision, the state has aimed to draw investments worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore, primarily in its five thrust sectors with an employment potential of three million. The thrust sectors have been identified as IT & electronics manufacturing, downstream & ancillary, food processing, petroleum, chemicals & petrochemicals and textiles & apparel.

To host such a mega conclave in the future, the state government has tasked itself to set up a 4,000-seater convention centre at a cost of Rs 307 crore. State-owned agency Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) will identify suitable land for this purpose, said State industries minister Debi Prasad Mishra.

Metals & minerals sector was the top investment grosser with a size of Rs 97,911 crore. Infrastructure follows next with proposals worth Rs 38,443 crore followed by power & renewable energy (Rs 29,932 crore) and fertilisers, chemicals & petrochemicals and plastics (Rs 27,023 crore).

Other sectors also bagged sizeable investments — manufacturing (Rs 2,685 crore), tourism (Rs 2,076 crore), food processing (Rs 2,101 crore), IT & electronics system design and manufacturing — ESDM (Rs 1,500 crore), textiles and handloom (Rs 172 crore).

Odisha industries secretary Sanjeev Chopra said: "We have got investment proposals from 82 companies of which 70% are greenfield projects. Public sector NTPC and Adani Group, Tata Steel and Adventz Group are among the leading investors. Odisha has already been growing 20% higher than the national average and there are projections that the state GDP will grow 12% by 2020."

The Make in Odisha conclave got two foreign investments — Italy based Indo European Sustainable Development in food processing and Bangladesh-based Fortunes for a textiles manufacturing plant. The Italian company will take up rice processing in Kalahandi and turmeric processing in Kandhamal district at a cost of Rs 250 crore. The garment manufacturing unit is set to come up at Ramdaspur on Bhubaneswar's outskirts at a cost of Rs 50 crore and ensure employment for about 4,000 people.

Listing out the new ventures, chief secretary Aditya Padhi said, the state has bagged a proposal in food processing from Adani Wilmar, a Rs 10,000-crore project from Essel Packaging and one from Max Venture in petroleum & chemicals sectors. In tourism and hospitality space, Nataraj Hotels, Haldirams and Emerald Group of Hotels have expressed interest to set up their facilities in the state. Carnival Films has proposed to establish one multiplex at each of the district headquarters. A Film City that will house a film institute has also been proposed in the state.

The expo organised as a part of the 'Make in Odisha' conclave received an extremely good response, said industries secretary Sanjeev Chopra.

The total expo spread across 30,000 sq metres had 270 stalls, attracting a footfall of over 18,000. The state government staged 222 G2B (government to business) meetings and facilitated 603 B2B (business to business) meetings with 126 start-ups participating at the expo. The conclave proved to be an massive hit on social media platform Facebook hitting 102,107 likes in the past 60 days.