Yogi government to showcase industrial, diplomatic bench strength

The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is gearing up to showcase its industrial and diplomatic bench strength at the multi-city road shows being organised as a prelude to the UP Investors’ Summit 2018. 

The summit would be held on February 21 and 22, 2018 to showcase UP as an ideal investment destination. To give momentum to the high decibel two-day event, the Yogi government is holding road shows in six top cities of the country with the first port of call at New Delhi tomorrow. 

Other cities lined up for the road shows include Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Kolkata. 

Apart from industrialists, ambassadors and senior embassy representatives of various countries like Netherlands, USA, Nepal, Mauritius, Canada, Zambia, Spain, Czech Republic, Fiji, Bhutan etc are likely to attend tomorrow’s road show and partake in discussions relating to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and other areas of collaboration. 

The UP delegation would be led by state industrial development minister Satish Mahana and comprise top bureaucrats viz. Infrastructure & Industrial Development Commissioner (IIDC) Anup Chandra Pandey, industrial development principal secretary Alok Sinha, additional chief secretary (IT and electronics) Sanjiv Saran, among others. 

The roadshows would focus on promoting UP as a preferred investment destination and highlight investment opportunities in the landlocked state. It would also comprise B2G (business to government) meetings in which the state would individually address investors’ concerns and sell ‘Brand UP’. 

Prominent industrialists such as Pankaj Patel (CMD Cadila Healthcare), U S Bhartia (CMD India Glycols), Sameer Gupta (MD Jakson Limited), Jagdish Khattar (Founder Carnation Auto), Ramesh Suri (Co-founder Subros) Naresh Trehan (Executive Director Medanta) etc would represent industry likely at the summit. 

Earlier, the Yogi government had formed several committees and sub-committees to ensure the success of the event. A working group comprising 33 members has been constituted under the IIDC for drafting the roadmap of the summit, coordinating with industries/investors and the various foreign countries for participation in the event. 

The sate would especially make a pitch for defence manufacturing at the summit. About 5,000 business delegates, industrialists and investors are expected to participate.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, PMs of Mauritius and Nepal, apart from the ambassadors of foreign countries would be invited for the summit.

Yogi government is targetting to sign memorandum of understanding (MoUs) worth almost Rs 1,00,000 crore with Indian and foreign companies.

During the earlier Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav regimes, MoUs worth over Rs 50,000 crore were signed, however, most of the proposals never took off due to sloppy follow-ups, policy flip-flops and perception of bad law and order.

Since taking over as the chief minister on March 19, 2017, ambassadors and high commissions of various countries, including Israel, Japan, Thailand, the Netherlands etc have called upon Yogi to discuss investment issues. A dedicated cell has also been set up in the CM’s Office to monitor investment proposals from USA.