Kerala govt to showcase over 100 projects to global investors

To attract industrial investments and provide a thriving environment for enterprises in the state, the Kerala government has readied more than 100 projects that would be showcased to potential investors at the upcoming ASCEND 2020 Global Investors Meet.

Organised by Department of Industries, the event is scheduled for January 9-10 next year at Lulu Bolgatty International Convention Centre, Bolgatty Island, here.

The big ticket projects - a minimum of 60 projects from the Industries Department and 40 from other government departments/agencies -- would be presented before the prospective investors, the organisers said in a press release here.

These projects span diverse sectors ranging from infrastructure, petrochemicals, defence and agro & food processing to electronic hardware, tourism & hospitality, port & harbour and aeropolis.

The other sectors in which attractive projects have been formulated are life sciences, fisheries and mobility transport, the release said.

The government said it has initiated new policies and procedures to make the Ease of Doing Business easier, tweaked the industrial policy, revised the land assignment rules and introduced electronic platform for hassle-free interactions with the investors, industrialists and entrepreneurs.

"Kerala is witnessing a paradigm shift for harnessing industrial investments in the state. It now ranks second among Indian states in the World Banks Investment Climate Index. We will aggressively pitch project profiles and the recent amendments to industrial licensing procedures at ASCEND 2020 to position Kerala as a hotspot for attracting investments from India and abroad, said Industries Minister E P Jayarajan.

Among the major projects are Phase-III of Kochi Metro Rail Project for extending the metro rail from Aluva to Angamaly with airport connectivity and operation, management and development of Trivandrum International Airport through public-private partnership (PPP).

Also proposed is a petrochemical park exclusively for the petrochemical downstream industry on the FACT (Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore) premises at Ambalamugal, which is expecting investments in the field of automobile industry, plastic industry, pharmaceuticals, textiles and consumer durables.

The other projects in the petrochemical sector include a PVC manufacturing facility of 150,000 TPA capacity and setting up a manufacturing unit of superabsorbent polymer of 60,000 TPA capacity in Kochi.

Another ambitious project is the Electronics Hardware Park, which is proposed to be set up on 100 acres of land in Amballur with KSIDC as the nodal agency.

It aims to promote manufacturing and assembling of electronic hardware and is estimated to attract investments worth Rs 650 crore through manufacturing and assembling of electronic equipment.

Kerala is also trying to foray into defence sector in a big way by setting up KINFRA Defence Park that would be manufacturing rotary and fixed wing aircraft, navigation technology, tactical vehicles, submarine-building, naval warship, defence IT systems, space robotics maintenance, microsatellites and unmanned systems, the organisers said.