Red carpet welcome for European investors: Karnataka

The Karnataka government on Tuesday promised a red carpet welcome to the central European investors and also assured transparency and quick decision-making.

"I assure you that the investors will be welcomed on the red carpet, I assure you total transparency and quick decisions," said Karnataka Large and Medium Industries Minister R.V. Deshpande at a business interaction organised in the run-up to the second India-Central Europe Business Forum (ICEBF).

ICEBF, scheduled from October 5 to 6 in Bengaluru, is focusing on a number of areas for investments from 30 central European countries like agriculture and food processing, auto and Auto components, IT and IT services, environmental technologies, life sciences, manufacturing and others.

Promising cooperation and reforms to the industry for doing business in Karnataka, Deshpande said: "I told my officers to interact with all the industry associations for promoting business and I call upon the industry associations be prepared with presentations and suggestion for the government."

Deshpande suggested the central European investors to take advantage of Bengaluru and Karnataka.

"This (Bengaluru) is the technology capital not only in India but also in the world. It is also recognised as the Silicon Valley of India," he said.

Deshpande has suggested the creation of an overseas desk to appoint exclusive officers for each country to promote trade and commerce.

However, the minister highlighted that still a lot of development should be done on infrastructure and power fronts in Karnataka state.

The tourism minister invited Central European countries to participate in the forthcoming Partner Summit of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) scheduled from September 6-8, 2015 which would be the first international tourism summit in Karnataka.

More than 1,000 delegates would be attending the tourism summit for which 62 countries have already confirmed participation, he said.

He also made a special mention of start ups and outlined a month's timeline to come up with a programme focusing on encouraging start ups.

The business interaction was also attended by Tomasz Lukaszuk, ambassador, Poland, Petko Doykov, ambassador, Bulgaria, delegates from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and others.