MP can offer UK a win-win partnership: Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Madhya Pradesh can offer UK investors a "win-win partnership" which will benefit the state as well as Britain, state's Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said here as he sought investment from the country's businesses.

Chouhan said a number of UK investors across different sectors had expressed interest in investing in the state during his two-day visit, which concluded on Tuesday.

"This visit was mainly about presenting Madhya Pradesh's attractiveness as an investment destination and how it can prove a win-win partnership for the state as well as UK investors. We received a lot of positive interest across different sectors," Chouhan said on the sidelines of the "Opportunities in Madhya Pradesh" summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and UK India Business Council (UKIBC) yesterday.

He said the Indian-origin businessman and founder of the Purico Group in the UK, Nat Purie, had expressed interest in setting up a not-for-profit vocational training and skill development centre in the state.

A consortium of pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, Medicity, plans to take a delegation from the UK to Madhya Pradesh in early October to explore setting up of an Indo-UK Institute of Health in MP.

"Madhya Pradesh is India's heartland. At one time, it was counted among the country's backward states but it has seen unprecedented development with double digit growth rates in the last eight years," Chouhan said.

"Beyond single-window clearance, our ease of doing business success is around a single table concept where I sit down with my ministers every Monday to solve problems right away. I am not just the Chief Minister but the CEO of MP and I will not let you down," he said in an impassioned speech.

Chouhan, who was accompanied by his minister for commerce, industry & and employment Rajendra Shukla and principal secretary of MP's industrial department Mohammed Suleman, said the central aim of his UK visit was to invite investors to the biennial 'Global Investors Summit' in Indore to be held on October 22 and 23.

He was in London on the invitation of Priti Patel, UK minister for international development, and besides a bilateral meeting with her also made some site visits around London to develop a broader "vision and perspective" for his state.

His team highlighted that the state offered a strategic location in the central part of India as well as great connectivity to major Indian cities and ports, an industrial land bank, progressive business policies, and a state that is ranked 5th in the World Bank's 'Ease of Doing Business" rankings.

The key sectors for investment avenues promoted in the UK included areagri-business and food processing, automobile and engineering, defence, IT/ITeS, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, textile, tourism and urban development.