Nearly 2,800 deals signed; 16 other states note lessons.
Breaking its previous record, the two-day Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit 2011 (VGGIS), the fifth such event, saw memorandums of understanding (MoUs) worth Rs 15 lakh crore being signed on the first day alone between industrialists and the state government.
In the previous event, 8,500 MoUs were signed in the two days, amounting to about Rs 12 lakh crore.
The fifth VGGIS was inaugurated today and saw a record 2,766 MoUs in 26 sectors signed till 5 pm. There were 48 MoUs worth Rs 3.05 lakh crore in the power sector, 13 MoUs worth Rs 1.22 lakh crore for various Special Investment Regions (SIRs), 41 MoUs worth Rs 1.34 lakh crore in the mineral sector and 16 MoUs worth Rs 1.72 lakh crore in financial services. Also, 16 MoUs worth Rs 40,679 crore in oil and gas, 153 worth Rs 73,546 crore signed for the Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region and a little over 300 MoUs worth Rs 75,103 crore in the engineering, auto and ceramic industries.
Learning from past summits, the government took additional steps to ensure filtering of unviable projects. “This year we rejected 10-12 per cent of MoUs after thorough scrutinising, since we found them unviable,” said a senior official.
The Special Investment Region being planned at Dholera will house the country’s first city developed on a public-private partnership model, said Amitabh Kant, managing director and chief executive officer for the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project.
A K Sharma, CEO, Gujarat Industrial Development Board, said the region was being readied for development works. “There were issues pertaining to water logging, etc, but that are being taken care of and we are doing the scientific management for the same,” he said.
The SIR, associated Special Economic Zones and DMIC witnessed 12 MoUs being signed, with an investment commitment worth Rs 1.39 lakh crore, to generate an estimated129,000 jobs.
