The Gujarat Chemical Association (GCA) is all set to organise the Global Chemical Leaders Summit(GCLS) in December this year, just ahead of the much awaited biennial investment event of the state, the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit in 2011. The GCA has already started the groundwork on attracting investments in the state.
"Several industry associations across the state have sent delegations to Korea, Taiwan and China among other countries to scout potential investors in Gujarat, and we are expecting significant investment commitments from these countries", said Jaimin Vasa, president, GCA. Nearly 31 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) worth Rs 13,412 crore were signed in chemical and allied sectors in the Vibrant Gujarat Summit of 2009, he informed. GCLS 2010 would focus on areas like chemicals, petrochemicals, agrochemicals, dyestuff and speciality chemicals, and expects to attract at least 3,000 delegates and over 150 exhibitors from countries like China, Korea, Taiwan,UK,US as well as neighbouring countries like Bangladesh,Nepal among others. Vasa added that "High performance chemicals, pigments, mining resources based products, biorefineries, nanotech based products as well as downstream petrochemical industries are the potential areas of investment here in Gujarat, which accounts for nearly 52 per cent of total national chemical production." The GCLS would also focus on vendor development programme for big corporates like ONGC,Reliance,Tata Motors, Essar, Indian Oil, GAIL,General Motors, that would throw open opportunities for the small and medium chemical units in the state to supply to these giants. Moreover, the association is planning to develop a Gujarat Chemical Industries Knowledge Center for guiding companies,providing know-how as well as undertake handholding activities for SMEs. The Center is coming with an initial investment of Rs 15 crore at Gandhinagar, partly funded by the state government and partly by GCA. GCA will be the operating agency for the Knowledge Center that would be operational within the next two years.
In another significant move,GCA is also organising an awareness meet for the SME chemical units in the state, to inform them about simple and cost effective solutions for pollution control on October 7. "The state government already has a scheme to provide a soft loan with interest subsidies to SME units who invest in pollution control measures. We will organise the meet to sensitise these units about the benefits of pollution control which they perceive as a high capital investment", Vasa said.
