 "UK eyes education, infra business opportunities in Odisha")
“The government of Odisha has some exciting plans, particularly in the field of advanced engineering, mining, infrastructure, skill development and education. There are some world-class British companies with tremendous experience and expertise in these sectors who can play a part in making Odisha’s future bright,” he said attending the seminar, UK and Odisha in Partnership, organised jointly by the office of British Deputy High Commission and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The British officials are accompanied by representatives of 17 companies, making it the largest ever delegate to visit the state. Out of the companies, eight are working in the fields of education and skill development, five were from infrastructure sector and three have exposure to clean technology.
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The Odisha government has an ambitious plan to upgrade the infrastructure sector and implement the education and skill development programmes via public private partnership (PPP) mode. As of November 2013, as many as 100 projects worth Rs 24,726 crore across varied sectors are in different stages of implementation through the PPP mode in the state. The projects are related to healthcare, education, water supply, warehousing, urban management, tourism, power transmission, roads, port construction etc.
While 26 PPP projects of Rs 13,025 crore are under implementation, 40 projects (worth Rs 5,445crore) and 34 projects (worth Rs 6,256 crore) are operational and in the pipeline respectively. About nine PPP projects in the transport segment leads the pack with combined investments of Rs 15,740 crore. The sector has three operational projects, fiver under implementation and the balance are in the pipeline.
It is followed by roads (Rs 3,476 crore), urban development (Rs 1,890 crore) and power transmission (Rs 1,634 crore). Among others, the investment in industrial infrastructure, healthcare, finance and revenue, tourism and education sectors are estimated at Rs 885 crore, Rs 580 crore, Rs 200 crore, Rs 239 crore and Rs 82 crore respectively.
Department for International Development (DFID), a department of UK government for upgrading infrastructure in developing countries, said it will now tie up with private companies to provide them an opportunity to be a partner in development and profit.
“We have realised that profit making and development can go hand-in-hand and hence, we have decided to partner with private companies in such infrastructure development plan,” said Meenakshi Nath, deputy head of DFID in India at the seminar. To bring in more investment to the developmental sector, the DFID has introduced the new approach, which is to provide returnable capital to the private sector to deliver development results-especially jobs and growth.
“We will compliment this with support to improve investment climate and build capacity of private sector,” she said.