With ‘Utkarsh Odisha’ summit, state seeks to attract foreign investment and look beyond mining sector

“Ever since our government has assumed power, we have already approved investments worth Rs 2.75 lakh crore in various sectors and expect to draw further investment intents of around Rs 5 lakh crore during the two-day investors’ meet. Unlike our predecessor, we are focussing on creating infrastructure and favourable conditions for industries before approving a project,” said the state’s Industries Minister Sampad Swain.

Though the previous BJD government had initiated the investors’ meet as the Make in Odisha conclave, the BJP government has renamed it Utkarsh Odisha conclave.

While Odisha has traditionally been a go-to location for investors in the mining and metal sector given its rich mineral resources, the new government has sought to shift its focus to other sectors. These include green hydrogen and green ammonia, petrochemicals, tourism, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, apparel and textiles, and IT and IT-enabled services.

“We want to diversify the investments as mining and metal sectors hardly generate employment opportunities. The sectors on which we are focussing are employment-intensive sectors that will help create largescale jobs for our youths,” said an industries department official.

Officials said that through the conclave, the state wants to highlight its business ecosystem, including investor-centric policies, proactive statutory clearances; and infrastructure, like all-weather ports, road networks and industrial parks; as well as strategic access to key domestic and international markets.

“We will present Odisha as the eastern gateway for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries,” said the official.

As part of its countries-of-focus initiative to explore the avenues of trade and commerce on the global market, the government is expecting diplomats and representatives from Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Japan, Belarus, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, Italy, South Africa and Egypt.

The Industries Minister said the state government would sign at least 100 MoUs with various business houses during the two-day conclave.

A special session has been planned to provide a platform to the state’s budding entrepreneurs to share their ideas and innovations with investors, officials said. The BJP government said the conclave would also throw light on how its SUBHADRA scheme enables new women entrepreneurship in villages.

SUBHADRA, the flagship scheme of the BJP government, assures Rs 10,000 to over 1 crore women for five years.