Ahmedabad, Jan 12
Indian entrepreneurs, including Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh
Ambani, Friday committed investments and projects in Gujarat
totaling Rs.2.1 trillion ($46.6 billion) over the next four-five
years at the Gujarat business expo.
Ambani committed a whopping Rs.350 billion in modernizing his
refinery in Jamnagar and another Rs.320 billion by signing memoranda
of understanding (MOUs) with Indian and foreign collaborators.
Recalling the words of his late father Dhirubhai Ambani at the third
'Vibrant Gujarat 2007' Global Investors' Summit here, he said
Reliance was "a Gujarati enterprise, an Indian enterprise and a
global enterprise". He also announced the setting up of "a
world-class university" in Gujarat.
Tata Group chief Ratan Tata, who made no fresh commitment, recalled
the indebtedness of his family and the Parsi community of fire
worshippers, who migrated from Iran in the eighth century, to be
welcomed in Gujarat.
The economic climate under Modi was such that "it would be stupid
not to come here", he told a large gathering, including 200 foreign
delegates.
Announcements of fresh investments were also made by Kumar Mangle
Burlap of the Adyta Burlap Group, Torrent and others.
Exhorting all industrialists to invest, Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi said: "Try your luck here. You will earn enough to
feed your generations."
This is Modi's third expo with domestic and foreign investors. Some
of those who made commitments in 2003 and 2005 came forward to say
that the state government had allotted them land within 30 days of
application and cleared all formalities in 90 days to enable them
put up factories and a project in a matter of months.
The chief minister completes six years in office in December when
the state is slated to go for assembly elections. Though his
handling of the 2002 communal riots was severely criticized at home
and abroad, there was not even a remote reference to it in the
proceedings at the 'Vibrant Gujarat 2007'.
The chief guest, Balaji Sadasivan, Singapore's senior minister of
state for foreign affairs, recalled the role of the Gujarati
community in his city-state in setting up the first Indian Chamber
of Commerce 50 years ago.
Even the Gujarati school in Singapore would be celebrating its 60th
anniversary, Sadasivan said, adding: "Singapore's investors and
entrepreneurs have a lot to learn from Gujarat."
Habil Khorakiwala, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (FICCI), who also heads pharma giant Workhardt,
said Gujarat, with six percent of the geographic space and five
percent of the population, was contributing to 21 percent of the
country's exports.
With the economic momentum in Gujarat and at the national level,
Khorakiwala said India could surpass the economies of Italy and
France by 2020, Germany by 2025 and Japan by 2030.
In his key-note address, ICICI Bank chief K.V. Kamath praised Modi's
"pro-active" role in guiding the state's economy. More like a CEO".
He said, however, that it was necessary to concentrate on the rural
areas in augmenting human resources like education and health at the
same level as the economy if the country was to achieve balanced
growth.
Investors from across the world, including China, the US and Britain
are attending the expo. Many of them are non-resident Gujaratis who
have done well abroad. Like Mukesh Ambani said they were "regulars"
and hoped to consolidate their gains made earlier.
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