Billions of dollars worth of investment opportunities in a wide range of sectors in India's Odisha state were offered to businesses in the UAE and the MENA region during an Investors' Meet in Dubai.

 

The meeting was held under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha, along with a delegation of senior officials from the Government of Odisha.

 

Odisha has approved over $50 billion worth of investment projects since 2021 and it is attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in sectors such as metals and metal downstream, chemicals and petrochemicals, textiles and apparel including technical textiles, food processing including seafood processing, ESDM, Logistics and clean energy, said a statement.

  

The Investors Meet was jointly organised with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Embassy of India in UAE. It was attended by more than 150 companies based out of the UAE and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Leading industry associations from the region including Indian Business and Professional Council (IBPC) also participated in the event.

 

Highlighting the various advantages of the state, Patnaik underlined Odisha’s mineral and human resources, use of enabling technology in delivering efficient and effective investment facilitation and Odisha’s progressive policy and governance.

 

“Odisha holds the lion’s share of India’s mineral reserves with 96 percent of the country’s chromite reserves, 92 percent nickel, 53 percent bauxite, 45 percent manganese, 35 percent iron-ore, and 23 percent coal reserves. This has made Odisha the largest producer of steel, stainless steel, ferro alloys, alumina, and aluminium in India. Odisha also has 11 percent of India’s water resources. The state has a 480-km long coastline making it a natural choice for setting up ports, and for international trade,” he said.

 

The state is home to a large and highly skilled workforce. Shri Patnaik said: “We have made good investments in setting up technical and professional institutes at all skill levels – ITIs, polytechnics and engineering and management colleges. Eleven of India’s top 100 industrial training institutes are in Odisha. With the assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Institute of Technical Education Services (ITEES), Singapore, the Government of Odisha has recently established the World Skill Centre in Bhubaneswar to prepare the Odia workforce for modern and new age Industry.”

 

The state’s single window portal for investors, Go Swift has transformed the B2G interface with its user-friendly features which provide time-bound clearances for over 50 G2B services. Odisha is also home to over 1,200 start-ups, many of which are in the technology space, he said. 

 

The Chief Minister said the state will hold the third edition of its flagship Global Investors Meet – Make In Odisha 2022 -- from November 30 to December 4 at the state capital Bhubaneswar. 

 

The team Odisha also conducted one-on-one B2G meetings with major companies of the region such as LuLu Group, NBTC Group, Sharaf Group, Twenty Fourteen Holding and Tablez Group, ERAM Group, Sobha Group, Arab and India Spices, Tabreed, etc. The state government invited them to explore Odisha in their future expansion plans. The government also assured all the companies of unmatched facilitation and support.

 

The team Odisha also included a high-level business delegation from the top companies who have invested in Odisha. The business delegation included Parth Jindal - Managing Director, JSW Cement; Saroj Poddar - Chairman, Paradeep Phosphates; Satish Pai - Managing Director, Hindalco; Dilip Oomen - CEO, AM/NS India; Rahul Sharma - CEO, Vedanta; Subhrakant Panda - Managing Director, IMFA; Sujoy Choudhury- Director, IOCL; Jagadish Naik - Chairman, and Managing Director, DN-Homes; Bhabatosh Sahoo, Managing Director, B-One Business House; Prashant Mallick - Managing Director, Tata Steel SEZ; and Chanakya Chaudhary – Vice President, Tata Steel.  -TradeArabia News Service