The Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry or the FKCCI is hoping to do a Guangdong in Coastal Karnataka using the three districts of Dakshina Karnataka, Udupi and Dakshina districts.
The growth in China has been driven by exports and heavy investment in infrastructure and manufacturing in Coastal regions, making them the manufacturing hubs of the world.
Karnataka’s growth, like that of India’s, is mostly driven by the services sector. Though agriculture and manufacturing provide maximum employment, their share in the gross state domestic product is only 34 per cent. In fact, while the share of agriculture is declining, the share of manufacturing has been constant over previous few years.
“Hence it is essential these two sectors be strengthened to have an inclusive, balanced and sustained growth. For this, Karnataka has to speed up its growth by utilising all opportunities available on all fronts,” said J R Bangera, President, FKCCI.
Keeping the need for speeding up Karnataka’s growth in mind, and the opportunities coastal Karnataka, can provide in this, FKCCI is holding a coastal business summit at Mangalore on January 4 and 5, 2012.
This region as a whole and Dakshina Kannada in particular have a high scope for further industrial growth. With its knowledge and banking base, the region also has tremendous potential for the IT&BT and other knowledge-based services and industry, he added. These three districts together had a share of about 9 per cent of Karnataka’s GSDP of Rs 2,38,898 crore at constant 2004-05 prices in 2008-09. Of them, Dakshina Kannada had the maximum share of 5 per cent, while Udupi and Uttara Kannada had a share of 2 per cent each in the state’s GSDP in 2008-09.
Dakshina Kannada’s Industry has had a high 31.1 per cent share in the district’s GDP in 2007-08, for which data is available. Udupi and Uttar Kannada followed with Industry shares of 29.8 per cent and 25.7 per cent in respective district GDPs. It may also be noted that Dakshina Kannada heads the coastal region in the share of services with a share of 57.7 per cent. Infrastructure, particularly the connectivity between the hinterlands and production units and ports play to the strength of the region. This region is also known for its major port at Mangalore and nine minor ports. The entire coastal belt as well as the adjacent districts are rich with mineral and natural resources and hence offer a very good scope for industrial investment.
Karnataka, situated on the Western Coast of India, is endowed with a maritime coastline of around 300 km between Karwar (in the North) and Mangalore (at the South) flanked by Uttara Kannada, Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts, with favourable and strategic port locations. The entire coastal belt as well as the adjacent districts are rich with mineral and natural resources and hence offer a very good scope for industrial investment.
Apart from developing these ports, the session on Infrastructure, the second technical one on January 4, would also look into issues related to rail and road connectivity with a special emphasis on developing the Shiradi, Charmadi and Agumbe ghat sections.