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Journalism of Courage
The two-day Invest Kerala Global Summit in Kochi brought three political rivals on one stage as leaders from the CPI(M), Congress and the NDA spoke on Friday. The speakers Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly V D Satheesan, and Union Minister and RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary. Their collective message to investors: “Bet on the state”.
These rival political fronts presented a united outfit at the ongoing investor summit in the state, batting for Kerala’s economic prosperity, with the Union ministers offering full solidarity and thye Centre’s support to Kerala’s efforts at attracting businesses.
The Kerala government is organising the two-day summit in a bid to attract domestic and internal investors to the state, with a particular focus on tourism, food processing, health innovations, fintech, aerospace, defence, and sustainable technologies.
With the summit, the state is also making an attempt at shunning its old image of being a destination that may not have been the friendliest to big businesses. Organised by the Kerala government’s industries department, the event is scheduled to have 28 sessions that will be attended by representatives from six countries. More than 3,000 people are attending the conference. Kerala has to find an identity of its own among southern states, many of whom have stolen a march over it in drawing investments in new economic sectors.
Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have become major areas for electronics manufacturing in the country, with Telangana continuing to move forward in the IT/ITeS sector. It is in that context that the coming together of multiple political ideologies to sing in one tune highlights the push to promote investments and infrastructure development in Kerala.
Vijayan said that the state has done a clean up of its bureaucratic set up to make Kerala more investor-friendly. “The changes we have brought about now are not incremental, but substantial… We have ensured that no investor coming to Kerala will have to face the cobweb of procedural delays and meet the barriers of red tape. We have made major strides in simplifying procedures as regards investments,” he said.
“We are working with the spirit of cooperative federalism. There is also competition. But that is the sheer recipe for further development of the state,” Goyal said at the event. Minister for Skill Development Jayant Chaudhary emphasised India’s shift from a “back office of the world” to a hub of innovation, calling Kerala the “gateway to a developed India.”
Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, who joined the event through a video conference, said road projects worth Rs 3 lakh crore will be completed in the state, as he also announced 31 new road projects for Kerala worth Rs 50,000 crore.
Congress’s VD Satheesan said, “regardless of political affiliations, our collective goal is to propel Kerala into a future of economic prosperity and industrial excellence”.
“I am very much proud to declare that the Opposition is taking an initiative for the beginning of a new culture, we are giving our full support… I am happy to say we have not conducted any hartals (strikes) for the past four years. My request to the government is that when you will be in the Opposition, you have to continue the same culture,” Satheesan added. The Adani Group is planning to invest
Rs 30,000 crore in Kerala over the next five years, with a particular focus on the state’s port and airport infrastructure, said Karan Adani, managing director, Adani Ports and SEZ.
(The reporter is in Kochi at the invitation of the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation)
