Chennai, Sep 26 (IANS) The Odisha government on Wednesday organised an investors' meet here ahead of the Make in Odisha Conclave scheduled to be held in November.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik met several industry captains during the roadshow organised in association with its industries partner Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
MAMR Muthiah, Managing Director, Chettinad Group, P.R. Venketrama Raja, Chairman, Ramco Group, R. Thyagarajan, Chairman, Shriram Group, M.M. Murugappan, Executive Chairman, Murugappa Group, Mallika Srinivasan, Chairman, TAFE and S. Ilanahai, MD, Cetex Petrochemicals participated in the roadshow.
Business leaders from over 350 Tamil Nadu-based companies participated in the roadshow to explore attractive growth opportunities across Odisha's focus sectors.
"I take this opportunity to invite you all to participate in the Make in Odisha Conclave -- our flagship biennial global investors' meet," said the Chief Minister.
"As you are aware, our natural strength lies in being a mineral rich state. During the last 18 years of my government, we have focused on enhancing the production levels of key minerals and value added products. There has been a significant increase in the metal output and today, Odisha is home to major aluminium and steel companies of the country," he added.
The Chief Minister said the port capacity has increased ten times to 190 million metric tonnes at present.
Similarly, power generation has increased more than three-fold and road network has increased over 50 per cent, he said.
He also announced the receipt of 400th investment proposal by GO-SWIFT (Government of Odisha-Single Window Portal for Investor Facilitation and Tracking) in the investors' meet.
The proposal was submitted by Tata Steel Processing and Distribution Limited to set up a manufacturing unit of steel doors and windows with a capacity of 1,80,000 units per annum at Kalinganagar Industrial Complex, Jajpur with a total investment of Rs 92 crore. The project would create employment opportunities for 250 people.
Notably, GO-SWIFT has received the 400 investment proposals within a short span of 10 months reflecting rising investor interest in Odisha.
Patnaik also launched the 36-hour Smart Odisha Hackathon in the run-up to the Make in Odisha Conclave 2018.
He called upon budding entrepreneurs and students to come up with innovative solutions to resolve the pressing challenges of public service delivery as well as those that concern the industry and consumers.
He said that the shortlisted ideas will be implemented as pilot projects and winners will be awarded attractive prizes.
During the meetings with investors, the strategic advantages of Odisha were highlighted: the low cost of doing business, incentives for investors, dedicated sector-specific clusters and over 1.20 lakh acres of land bank available for industrial development.
The industrial infrastructure at National Investment Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ), Kalinganagar, food processing park at Khordha and Chhatabar, textile parks at Ramdaspur and Dhamnagar, aluminium parks at Angul and Jharsuguda and the plastics park at Paradip was presented to the investors.
