Joshi brings home no confirmed deals

Joshi found that there was good investment climate in the countries he visited and avid interest in projects in Maharashtra.

While the Government of Malaysia is keen to cooperate with the Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party Government in sectors of drinking water, roads and bridges, tourism and infrastructure, the Sumitomo Bank has agreed to consider syndication of loan in four broad areas upto US $ one billion. These areas are drinking water, highways and expressways, industrial parks and townships, and restructuring of some of the public sector undertakings, Joshi said.

The Chief Minister said Sumitomo Bank evinced keen interest in providing funds, its advisory services and syndicating funds to the Government in infrastructure and social sector, including drinking water and highways. He said a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the Bank for the purpose.

Joshi said his mission was mainly for three objectives, firstly, to secure financial assistance for the Rs 10,000 crore drinking water schemes; secondly, to study cleanliness drive launched in some of the foreign countries; and finally, to secure foreign investments for infrastructure.

“Though there was no specific commitment, I feel my tour was successful. I have been able to study development projects in these countries,” Joshi pointed out.

He said the Bank of Tokyo appears to have chosen Maharashtra for its assistance in mobilisation of resources for infrastructure projects and industrial model townships. Joshi said an agreement between Matsushita and Videocon for Rs 500 crore white goods manufacturing projects near Pune was signed during his tour. This will be first such investment made by Matsushita in Maharashtra, he claimed.

In Kuala Lumpur, Joshi sought the cooperation of the Government of Malaysia in his government’s efforts to strengthen the communication network in Maharashtra. An exchange of letters took place between the Maharashtra Roads and Bridges Development Corporation and Government of Malaysia whereby a Malaysian organisation would work with an Indian corporation and construct roads and bridges on build, operate and transfer basisReplying to a question, Joshi said the heads of the Daiwa Securities, Industrial Bank of Japan and Bank of Tokyo were also keen to participate in the projects for infrastructure development in Maharashtra.