Doubts rise over summit trips

Modi says details of foreign trips will be answered only in the Assembly

With the Vibrant Gujarat - Global Investors' Summit 2005 held last week have attracted promised investments of over rupees one lakh crore, far more than the first version of the summit, what has perhaps taken a back seat is the fact that foreign trips by the chief minister, his Cabinet colleagues and top bureaucrats, has yielded below-par results.

The promised investments made at the investors' summit held between January 12 and 13 support this view.

Very few companies which did not have a base in Gujarat already, have announced plans to venture into the state. The purpose of the foreign trips was to invite non-resident Indians and non-resident Gujaratis to the summit, in a bid to invite fresh investment.

When quizzed before the investors' summit as to the costs incurred by the state government in promoting the event and also the costs that the state government bore for foreign trips of the ministers and bureaucrats, chief minister Narendra Modi said that this question will be answered only in the Gujarat Assembly.

In reply to a question, he said: "This question was asked during the first version of the global investors' summit too. And like last time, the state government will answer this question in the Assembly."

Modi, however, defended the foreign trips, stating that two funds "" the NRI/NRG fund and the NRG Charity Fund "" were made known to thousands of non-resident Gujaratis who reside in other countries.

"There are thousands of Gujaratis staying abroad, who want to contribute towards development of their state or origin, perhaps the village or town where they were born. These funds have been specially created for this purpose."

Modi even went on to state that he and several other ministers and bureaucrats had experiences where NRGs told them that they had met some government official from Gujarat for the first time in their life.

Chief secretary P K Laheri, when asked about the absence of global majors at the summit, told Business Standard: "Global companies like Shell and British Gas have invested huge sums of money through their Indian subsidiaries during the summit."

He added that the interest that companies have shown in Gujarat is evident from the amount of promised investment in the two days of the summit.

The Congress party has already decided to corner the state government with questions on the costs incurred in the foreign trips and organising the summit itself.

"Most of the projects for which memorandum of understandings (MoU) have been signed are of those companies already present in the state and which are in expansion mode. I do not remember any MoU being signed for a fresh entry into Gujarat by a company. Also, why did all the Fortune 500 companies not show interest in the summit," questioned senior Congress leader Narhari Amin.

He added that the party will raise these issues in the next Assembly session.