Depending on the profile of the companies, the chief minister has personally invited some corporate heads. More than 800 companies are being invited to the show.
"All big names in the corporate world like Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Cyrus Mistry, Sajjan Jindal, Gautam Adani, Kumaramangalam Birla and Anil Agarwal have been invited," an official of the state industries department said. "We expect more than 30 CEOs to be present. We are waiting for confirmation of their attendance."
Also Read
To facilitate the participation of foreign firms, Patnaik is scheduled to meet ambassadors of 40 countries in New Delhi on October 20.
For the conclave, Odisha has moved away from its traditional strength in mines and the minerals sector, and identified several priority areas to showcase their opportunities. These are chemical, petrochemical and plastics, textile and apparel, information technology and electronics manufacturing, tourism, food processing and smart city projects.
There will be eight sectoral seminars during the conclave. Brain-storming sessions will be held on defence manufacturing and skill development.
The state has prepared a list of at least 125 projects that would be showcased at the event. This apart, there are "investible projects" relating to health care and biotech, industrial parks, logistics and transport, energy and downstream industries in steel and aluminium.
The conclave will inform investors about the policy and regulatory framework, business ecosystem and manufacturing prowess of the state. They would be apprised of the ready-to-invest projects across sectors, said state Industry Minister Debi Prasad Mishra.
"Among the benefits of participation are one-to-one meetings with policymakers and senior government functionaries on business proposals as well as B2B meetings among industries and entrepreneurs," said Mishra.
Sceptics are not taken in. One industrialist, who did not wish to be named, said: "The exercise demonstrates how the tide has turned for Odisha. A decade ago investors were making a beeline for the state. At least 96 memoranda of understanding were signed with a combined investment promise of over Rs 8 lakh crore in sectors such as aluminium, power, port and cement. All these, without the government going in for investment conclaves or any visible effort to woo investors."
"Eventually only around 25 to 30 per cent of the proposed investment actually flowed in," the industrialist said. "While big-ticket investors Posco and ArcelorMittal left the state after facing issues over land acquisition and captive mines, others like the Jindals, the Bhusans and Vedanta, who had invested huge amounts to set up their projects, are now fighting for survival due to lack of raw material linkage and slowdown."
More than investors' summits, it is the experience of the people running their businesses in a state that helps attract more investment," industry analyst R P Panda said. "This is where Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka score while Odisha lags behind. A robust industrial ecosystem coupled with strong political will is essential for improving the experience of investors and to ensure timely implementation of projects."
Prithviraj Harichandan, state general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party, said the government had failed to capitalise on investment commitments signed at other conclaves.
Patnaik had participated in the Make in India Week in Mumbai in February this year and, more recently, at the Investors' Meet in Bengaluru, where investment commitments of Rs 90,000 crore and Rs 71,000 crore were received, respectively. But no money is said to have come in from these commitments.
"The objective of an investors' meet is not to count how much investment is committed or has come in; it is an occasion to demonstrate the opportunities and intent of the government to provide an enabling environment for investors to expand their business to the state," countered Sanjay Patnaik, chairman, Odisha chapter of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). "Make in Odisha Conclave will play a major role in meeting the long-term industrialisation goals of the state." The CII is partnering the state government for the event.
Odisha's industrial development plan, Vision 2025, projects an additional investment of Rs 2.5 lakh crore and incremental employment of one million. The new Industrial Policy Resolution, 2015, aims at making Odisha a manufacturing hub of the East.
"I only wish the mega event fulfils the grand objective of the government," said Niranjan Patnaik, a senior Congress leader and former industry minister of the state.