Goa needs to attract new investment: GCCI president

Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has highlighted the need to attract new investment and generate employment opportunities in the state against the backdrop of current ban on iron ore mining.
Newly-elected GCCI president Narayan Bandekar said a conducive policy and a responsive administrative framework will have to be set up for this.
"The new businesses, providing alternate opportunities of employment and income generation, will have to be encouraged," he said in his first address to GCCI Annual General Body Meeting yesterday.
"The current ban on mining is having a bad effect on the overall economy of the state," he said.

The Supreme Court last year imposed an interim ban on mining of iron ore in Goa in response to PILs on illegal mining and environmental degradation caused by it.
"At this juncture it is important that Chamber assumes its leadership role in bringing back on track the state economy, and stand by the Government in providing help to those affected," he said.

The chamber's membership constituted a vast pool of industry experts who can help the Government, he added.
In the last five to seven years, both trade and industry had suffered enormously because of lack of commitment to growth-oriented schemes and strategies, lethargic attitude in decision-making process and absence of effective control-mechanisms, he said.

He added that Manohar Parrikar government had come up with new and innovative social welfare schemes and "we at the Chamber appreciate and applaud his efforts".