Odisha woos US investors

The Odisha government has

utilized its COVID-19 care management to woo investors from the United States.

The state government highlighted its achievements in containing the spread of the highly infectious diseases in a video conferene with a delegation of the US-India Partnership Forum here on Tuesday, an official said.

The leading industries which showed interest in the interaction include ATC, Avaada Energy, Cairn Energy, Cisco, Exxon Mobil, Herbalife, HP, Mars, Microsoft, Oracle and Paypal, an official statement said.

The investors interacted with chief secretary A K Tripathy and other senior officers under the leadership of Dr Mukesh Aghi, President and CEO of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), it said.

 

The investors comprised various sectors like energy, agri-business, nutrition, aviation, information technology, metals and renewable energy, the official said, adding that they expressed satisfaction over the states management of the global pandemic crisis.

The chief secretary informed the delegation as to how Odisha created corona care and institutional quarantine facilities with more than 3.5 lakh bed capacity in a short span of time.

"The state has set up 35 exclusive Critical Care Hospitals for Covid patients. The infection level is well under control and community is quite aware and safe", Tripathy informed the delegation.

He also drew the attention of the business delegation and said: "Many of Odishas industrial estates are now in green zone. As of now, around 60 per cent of the industries are running by adopting the Covid preventive measures".

The chief secretary said that the state has followed policy consistency in matters of industrial promotion and now Odisha is on the verge of rolling out more progressive regulations in matters of land leasing, contract farming, direct farmer-market connect that will also open new avenues of investment.

Replying to another query about comparative advantage of Odisha as an investment destination, Industries secretary Hemant Sharma said, "Political stability, policy consistency, economic stability, skilled manpower, large mining and industrial base, ready availability of land in developed industrial estates..., have been the benchmark of Odisha".

He claimed that Odisha is a pioneer state in India having a stabilized single window clearance system for investment proposals. It is supported by a well developed institutional arrangement.

This apart, the state government also apprised the delegation that Odisha was among top-five lead states in 'ease of doing business'. Go-Swift Portal which is Single Window on-line Investor Facilitation and Tracking portal has been awarded with Excellence in Government process Re-Engineering for Digital Transformation at national level by Government of India for the year 2019-20.

Secretary Electronics and Information Technology Manoj Mishra, said, "We have well developed electronic and manufacturing sector just close to the capital city. The State is rich with skilled manpower in electronic and IT".