Orissa's tremendous potential as an attractive investment destination has got a further boost with US investments worth over Rs 6000 crore likely to flow into the state in sectors like information technology, hospitality, green energy and education.
A high-level delegation of the Orissa government which is on a tour to US to lure potential investors seems to have pulled it off for the state. The investors, mainly the Indian diaspora evinced interest in pumping investments in Orissa at the Invest Bhubaneswar symposium held at California.
Topping the lists of the prospective investors is Gokul Agrawal of CTC Education Pvt Ltd who intends to invest Rs 6000 crore over five years in developing a 1000-acre knowledge city.
In the higher education sector, Silicon University of the Silicon Valley Group has proposed to set up its campus in the state at a cost of Rs 300 crore. Investments would also be pouring in for the state's hospitality sector with the US-based Best Western Hotel lining up a Rs 100-crore investment plan for setting up a chain of properties at Bhubaneswar, Paradip, Chilka and Jharsuguda.
The delegation from Orissa also met a Japanese delegation exploring opportunities to invest in high technology areas. A number of ideas were exchanged between the two delegations to bring the Japanese companies to Orissa and specifically to Bhubaneswar.
The delegation consisted of the state minister for revenue and disaster management S N Patro; state minister for tourism, higher education and culture Debi Prasad Mishra; information technology minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi; Bhubaneswar MLA Ashok Panda; industries secretary Saurabh Garg , higher education secretary Madhusudhan Padhee and other secretaries including Mona Sharma and Ashok Meena.
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At the forum, the Bhubaneswar MLA appreciated the efforts to promote brand Bhubaneswar in Silicon valley and welcomed all participants to his city to invest in its infrastructure.
In his brief address, the IT minister highlighted the rapid strides made by Orissa in the IT sector and invited the IT majors from the Silicon Valley to invest in the state's IT sector.Speaking on the occasion, Mishra talked about the tourism potential of Orissa and highlighted the similarities between California and Orissa in terms of size, population and natural resource base. He also mentioned about the need for an investment to the tune of about $ 10 billion on the higher education sector in the state over the next 10 years.
Three success stories from Orissa in the form of Tatwa Technologies in IT, Swosti Group in hospitality sector and Gayatri Solar were presented by their respective promoters. A panel discussion was organized wherein the ministers and secretaries answered many questions related to the MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) signed by the Orissa government and their success, problems faced by the Posco project and other plans of the government.