Fadnavis to visit US for wooing investors to Maharashtra

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis (pictured) with state Industries Minister Subhash Desai will visit the US between June 29 and July 7 to woo investors. Fadnavis will interact with top management officials of Microsoft, GE, Boeing, Chrysler among others and spell out a slew of pro-industry decisions taken by his government. The chief minister will also hold talks with investment bankers and fund managers there.

Fadnavis has so far visited Davos, Germany, Israel and China and has received several investment commitments. The government has announced the policy for information technology and information technology-enabled services by proposing incentives.

Desai told Business Standard: ''Maharashtra continues to be the favoured destination for both domestic and foreign direct investments. The government has taken a slew of measures to consolidate its position as an investor-friendly state. The government has reduced the number of permissions to 25 from 76, cut the number of application forms and days required to get power connection. Besides, the number of days have been reduced to 60 from 162 to get various approvals from the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation.'' The minister said the objective of the US visit is to invite investors in couple of sectors including manufacturing, engineering, auto and auto parts, aviation, food processing and IT.

According to Desai, US companies will be invited to invest in the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor project being implemented near Dighi port in Raigad district and Shendre-Bidkin in Aurangabad district.

He informed that the government will allocate land to manufacturers keen on investing in the state in partnership with Indian companies.

"Foreign investors are eager to invest in various sectors in the state after being convinced of the change in culture and ease of doing business," he said adding that joint ventures will be formed with prominent Indian engineering companies.