State to have two pronged strategy for project clearances

Aiming to facilitate investors coming to Odisha, the state government has adopted two types of single window clearance mechanism.

"We are going to have two types of single window for giving clearances to the investors coming to the state. The clearances will now be provided, one at the DIC (District Industries Centre) level and another at the Ipicol (Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Limited ) level", said Panchanan Dash, secretary, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) department at a seminar on International Trade Facilitation organized by World Trade Centre, Bhubaneswar in association with EXIM Bank (Export Import Bank of India). Officers of various departments will be positioned for giving clearances under one roof, he added.

Initiating steps to implement 'Make In India' campaign in a time bound manner, the state government has constituted four high level committees under four additional chief secretaries (ACSs), he added.

Stating that Odisha is one of the few states to formulate an Export Policy, Dash said the policy aims to double the value of exports from the state in next ten years. A export strategy has also be finalized to boost exports, he added.

The EXIM Bank, in its endeavour to achieve the objective of export promotion, looks forward to provide assistance to the MSMEs of Odisha, said N Shankar, executive director of the bank.

It may be noted that EXIM Bank, as on March 2015, has extended 194 Lines of Credit (LOC) covering 63 countries across continents aggregating to USD 11.68 billion.

A LOC is a financing mechanism through which Exim Bank extends support for export of projects, equipment, goods and services from India. Exim Bank extends LOCs on its own and also at the behest and with the support of Government of India.

Similarly, the bank has supported 414 project export contracts valued at Rs 1,89,736 crore (about USD 30 billion) and sanctioned an amount of USD 2.68 billion for 18 projects valued at USD 4.40 billion under the Buyers' Credit - National Export Insurance Account (BC-NEIA).