Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Friday asked entrepreneurs to come up with new ideas and partner the government in its endeavour to strike a balance between the development of hill areas and plains of the state.
Inaugurating a two-day industrial summit at the BHEL convention centre here, Rawat said MoUs for investments worth over Rs 40,000 crore for the hills of Uttarakhand have so far been been signed with investors.
Investors have evinced keen interest in investing in the hill areas of the state. Creating employment opportunities for people living in the hill areas is a priority of the state government and all possible efforts are being made in that direction, he said.
"27 per cent of our forest area is covered with pine trees out of which different types of products are being made," Rawat said.
He appealed to entrepreneurs to come up with new ideas to supplement the state government's efforts to bring about a balance between the development of the hills and plain areas of Uttarakhand.
"We want to remove the existing disparities in the incomes of people living in the plains and those in the hills by increasing the per capita income of hill residents," he said.
More From This Section
Giving tourism the status of an industry has been a step in that direction, besides giving clearance rights to district magistrates in case of MSME projects so that small entrepreneurs do not have to come to Dehradun, he said.
Rawat added that law and order scenario in the state was also more conducive than in many other states for investments.
By revising the GST rates, the Centre has given a positive message to industrialists, he added. Accordingly, the state government too is providing a user-friendly atmosphere by introducing a single window system and increasing ease of doing business, the chief minister said.
In the years to come, investors in Uttarakhand are going to benefit immensely from the all-weather roads and international airport connectivity at the Jolly Grant Airport, he said.
He appealed to entrepreneurs to bring projects expeditiously in the tourism, hospitality and adventure sports sectors which have "tremendous potential" in Uttarakhand.
An exhibition was also organised on the sidelines of the event with companies like Hero Motocorp, BHEL, Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC,Tupperware and Symphony putting their products on display.