Telangana government has offered to create an industrial cluster for South Korean companies to set up manufacturing facilities in the state, officials said today.
"Recently, Ministry of External Affairs appointed (facilitated) a meeting of Telangana Chief Secretary and state's Industry officials with Korean delegation where the state government offered a land parcel depending upon the requirement of South Korea where various Korean companies can set up their base at one place ... So it will be a mini-cluster of Korean companies," Telangana (Industries, Commerce and Power) Principal Secretary Arvind Kumar said.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Korea Caravan 2016 organised here, he said the offer to create the cluster, which may also include residential localities and school which can cater to their specific needs, was again made to the South Korean Ambassador to India Cho Hyun here today.
"Yesterday, they (a Korean industrial delegation) went and visited some sites here. We are hopeful that some of the companies have expressed their interests and it will be followed by one and one meetings and we are hopeful we will be able to attract Korean companies in a big way," Kumar said.
"In terms of manufacturing base, IT base or electronics base, presence of South Korean companies in Telangana is not much as of now.
"Our effort is to make South Korea as the focus partner for us. A team led by Industry Minister and officials will also visit South Korea before December end," he added.
On power sector in Telangana, Kumar claimed that the state has overcome power deficit.
"Through GENCO we are adding 6,000 MW, Singareni Collieries 2,000 MW, NTPC 4,000 MW and 2,000 MW from Chattishgarh which will make a total of 14,000 MW within next three years," the officer said.
"We have a solar energy generation target of 5,000 MW till 2018 and out of this, PPAs were signed for 2,500 MW and most of them are likely to be operational by April of next year," he added.
In addition, Telangana would be getting more power generation from central generating stations and there will be some more PPAs and, in all, about 20,000 MW plus capacity would be added in the state in the next three years, he said.
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A 50-member delegation, representing Korean government and industry, led by Cho Hyun, is in the city to strengthen economic and cultural relations between Telangana and the Republic of Korea.
The Korean Caravan 2016 initiated dialogues to strengthen these ties through a Korea-Telangana Friendship Forum.
Earlier, during the session, an MoU was signed between Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) to strengthen trade and business between Republic of Korea and Telangana, especially in the areas of manufacturing, electronics and mobile industry, ICT, FMCG and consumer durables, food processing, urban infrastructure, agriculture, pharma and life sciences, aerospace and defence and skills training.
Addressing the gathering, Cho Hyun emphasised that Korea can offer immense opportunities to India, especially in the view of new initiatives (undertaken) by the Indian government.
"Korea offers relevance to India's policies of Make in India, Start-up India, Clean India, Digital India, besides others," he said.
As a part of the Korea-Telangana Friendship Forum, Business to Business meetings were also organised, where around 130 Indian companies participated to have initial business discussion.
