Bhopal: Chief Minister Kamal Nath said on Friday that Madhya Pradesh that is hosting an investment summit attended by several corporate biggies is not witnessing any slowdown.
Addressing the Magnificent MP investors’ summit organised in Indore, Nath said, "Investment sentiments in the state have not reduced. In fact, the state has witnessed a 4% increase in auto sales. The growth in FMCG products and consumer product sales has not declined (either).”
Declining to go into the number of memorandums signed during the event, Nath said he didn’t believe in optical illusions. “Over the last 10 months, we have changed the way of governance and introduced the investors to this change during the summit,” said the CM.
The summit was attended by leading business delegates, including Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, Godrej Group’s Adi Godrej, N Shrinivasan of India Cements, Vikram Kirloskar from the Kirloskar group, Dilip Sanghvi from Sun Pharma and Ravi Jhunjhunwala from HEG.
In an apparent did at the summits organised during the previous BJP government, he said, “You people have seen such summits in the past as well and we all know what the final result was.” Nath said his government was keen to put the state on the industrial map of the country and called upon the industry to come forward and support MP's transformation.
"We want to create an environment in MP where an investor comes because of the government. One can formulate a number of investment policies but if the policies don’t appeal to the investors, they won’t invest," he added.
The chief minister had instructed that the industry department will not sign any investment pacts with prospective investors at the summit, but will only discuss proposals, said Chief Secretary SR Mohanty.
This was because the previous summit held by the BJP government three years ago had attracted about Rs 5 lakh crore investment proposals, but only Rs 1.20 lakh crore of investments had materialised which is just under one-fourth of the commitment, Mohanty said.
Nath said a policy has been formulated to do away with all the permission for new investors and companies could directly start their project, given they comply with local norms.
“An inspection would take place after three years and we would only take action if the investor flouts our norms. The idea is that if some company is expressing faith in us, we would also reciprocate,” he said, adding separate policies were being worked on for different sectors as each industry has its own needs.
Speaking on the information technology sector, Nath said efforts are being made to boost the sector so much that local talents working elsewhere return to the state. He also promised a business district in Indore like the Bandra-Kurla Complex of Mumbai. Later, he told News18 that once the investments start flowing in, the state’s youth would benefit.
The major announcements at the summit include the one made by Ambani to set up national distribution centres, with over 10 million square feet of space across 45 locations in the state.
The company, which has over 600 retail stores and 100 petrol pumps in the state, is planning to more than double them over the next few years, Ambani said in a recorded message. Reliance is among the largest investors in the state, having pumped in over Rs 20,000 crore in the last few years, he said.
FMCG major, ITC chairman Sanjiv Puri announced a Rs 700-crore food park in the state, which will have a large facility for dehydrating vegetables such as beans and carrots.
Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi said over the last few years the company has invested close to Rs 500 crore in the state and is looking at expanding its facilities at Dewas and Malanpur. India Cements vice-chairman and managing director N Srinivasan also said his company intends to double the capacity of its plant in the state.
(With inputs from PTI)
Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd, which owns Reliance Digital, is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.
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