Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is also the chairman of Punjab Investment Advisory Council, on Thursday met industrialists in New Delhi to make Punjab a favoured investment destination. Inviting the industrial giants to promote Make in Punjab, he said Punjab, being an agrarian state, has immense potential to offer to every sector and assured of all support in setting up ventures.
The Punjab government will focus on agro and food processing, information technology, bio sciences, healthcare, textiles, electronic hardware, automobiles, garments, sports goods and leather industry to attract more investments and create job opportunities in the next two years.
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Badal also said food processing units will be set up on 550 acres at Fazilka, Ladhowal and Kapurthala very soon. Mohali, Gurdaspur and Nawan Shahr will also get food parks. He said Kapurthala would have one of the largest mega food parks of north India which is being set-up by ITC at Rs 800 crore.
Sunil Kant Munjal of Hero Group suggested to establish a cluster of food parks to encourage food processing industry and also organic farming. More than 20,000 acres in the state is under organic farming.
On the demand of Field Fresh Food to change the definition of new units for incentive purposes and exclusion of distilleries, brewing, bottling and canning plant from the negative list, the deputy CM gave directions to authorities concerned to notify these changes within two weeks.
During deliberations seeking amendments in current norms, Kamal Oswal of Nahar Industries offered to establish a world-class private industrial park and said a group of top industrial houses were also eager to establish such parks in the state. Badal asked the chief secretary to convene a meeting in this regard, so that the necessary action could be initiated at the earliest.