Odisha plans roadshows in Saudi, Italy, Germany for foreign investments

Over the past 4 years, the state has made rapid strides in attracting manufacturing investments with 118 large projects approved

In the run-up to the second edition of 'Make in Odisha', the state's biennial investors' meet, the state government has firmed up plans to stage roadshows in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Milan (Italy), and Germany.  
 

The overseas roadshows are expected to take off from next month. Both domestic and foreign roadshows are being conducted to solicit investor participation and their intents for the Make in Odisha summit, which is to be held in Bhubaneswar from November 11 to November 15.  

"Our thrust at the overseas roadshows will be on pulling investments in aluminium downstream space and textiles. We are trying to get more investments for the aluminium park being developed at Angul. The foreign roadshow would kick off at Riyadh," said Sanjeev Chopra, principal secretary (industries) with the Odisha government.

For the second edition of the Make in Odisha conclave, the state government is looking at partner country collaborations. "We are looking at one or two countries (with) whom we can collaborate. But, our tie-up would be sector agnostic," Chopra said.

After the decision of premier industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to pull out of Make in Odisha 2.0, the state government is engaging the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Ficci) for the showpiece event. Odisha Industries Minister Ananta Das said that Ficci has agreed to the idea and would facilitate corporate participation for the event. 

At the inaugural edition of Make in Odisha in December 2016, CII was roped in as an industry partner. Odisha drew investment intents valued at Rs 2.03 trillion at the event. Sixty per cent of those investments are now in various stages of approval or implementation, the minister said. 

Over the past four years, the state has made rapid strides in attracting manufacturing investments -- with 118 large projects approved, promising employment for 128,572 people. The average time taken for approval of projects has also narrowed to 20 days from the date of receipt of a completed project application. In 'ease of doing business' reforms, Odisha has drastically improved its compliance rate from 52.12 per cent in 2015 to 97.83 per cent in 2017.