Orissa Seeks Foreign Funds To Speed Up Growth

Orissa plans to attract private and foreign funds in tourism, software development and social sectors to speed up the regions growth, a senior state official said yesterday.

We are trying to attract a lot of foreign and private investment in tourism, software development and social sectors, chief secretary S B Mishra said in an interview in Bhubaneshwar.

Some other areas such as power and industry have also been identified as thrust areas for attracting investment.

Mishra said the areas where substantial foreign and private investments were expected to flow in were irrigation, roads, industrial projects, power, steel and refineries.

This will help to speed up the process of development of the state substantially, he said.

 

Orissa is one of the poorest states in the country. Nearly half of its 32 million people live below the poverty line.

The Planning Commission defines people below the poverty line as those whose daily intake is less than 2,400 calories in rural areas and 2,100 calories in urban areas.

Mishra said the state government had chalked out a new agriculture policy under which the target would be to raise the area covered under irrigation to 50 per cent in four years from the present 30 per cent.

Three new refineries are also coming up, Mishra said. He said the three refineries were a nine million tonne annual capacity plant to be jointly set up by Indian Oil Corporation and Kuwait Petroleum Corpation; another nine million tonne refinery by the Ispat Group; and a two million tonne refinery by the Hinduja Group.

Foreign companies are showing interest in undertaking exploration and setting up joint ventures with Orissa Mining Corp in the field of gemstones, gold and diamond in the state, Mishra said.

This in one area in which we are trying to make a big dent in the global market.

Mishra said the output of aluminium from the state was expected to rise substantially as two private firms Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd and Hindalco Industries were planning to set up aluminium refinery complexes.

In addition, major expansion work is being undertaken at National Aluminium Co as far as production is concerned, Mishra said. The state-run Nalco is Asias largest aluminium firm.

Mishra said two new ports were being built by private companies on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis which would help boost business in the region.

He said the government was keen to reduce the extent of poverty in the state and major poverty alleviation programmes were being planned with the help of World Bank aid.

Negotiations with the World Bank for a five billion rupee ($78 million) assistance is going on, Mishra said.

We hope it will be sanctioned by July. Mishra said the World Bank package would be part-aid and part-loan.