Chouhan out to woo investors, again

In spite of the unsuccessful previous foreign tours, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will be leaving for another such trip this month.

He will be going to the US and the UK on a 10-day tour programme with his cabinet colleague and State Industry Minister Babulal Gaur.

A two-day visit to France has been cancelled. "It is an ongoing effort to attract investment," Shivraj Singh Chouhan told Business Standard adding, "The results will not come immediately. People have shown interest in the state and we hope more will join hands with us."

The tour begins from May 10 and involves interaction with tour operators of the UK, meeting with members of British Chambers of Commerce, meeting with select industrialists of San Jose and St Louis and some prospective investors of New York.

According to sources close to the minister, "The bureaucrats do their personal work during these visits and hence involve chief ministers and industry ministers as key visitors".

Strangely the programme, which is a part of year-long "Destination Madhya Pradesh 2007" (to be organised at Bhopal) with public money of approximately Rs 4 crore, has no details about the role of department of industry during the entire trip.

In the last three years, three chief ministers of the state and two industry ministers had made business visits to the US, the UK, Sharjah, Singapore and Malaysia.