Media Release
Dubai, Oct 26: As a prelude to the Global Investors Meet 'Invest Karnataka-2016' scheduled to be held from February 3 to 5, 2016, a road show was held in Dubai on Sunday October 25 to showcase Karnataka as a preferred investment destination to prospective investors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) region.
The delegation was led by R V Deshpande, minister for large and medium scale industries and tourism, government of Karnataka, along with Kaushik Mukherjee, chief secretary to the government of Karnataka, Gaurav Gupta, commissioner for industrial development, government of Karnataka and senior officers of the department of industries and commerce, Karnataka.
The minister addressed the prospective investors and mentioned the investment opportunities in various sectors like manufacturing, aerospace and defence, infrastructure, tourism, health tourism, agro and food processing, energy, etc. He also said that even before liberalisation, Karnataka had presence of multi-national companies. "Karnataka is rich in human resource and youth population. Indians are the largest investors in the UAE and have contributed for the exponential development of the region including Dubai. It is time now for the Indian fraternity to invest in India and specifically in Karnataka. Out of 75 billion dollars investment assured by UAE during the visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Dubai, 25 billion dollars can be invested in Karnataka. Karnataka encourages investment through sector specific policies like industrial policy, tourism policy, textile policy, infrastructure policy, etc. The state is shortly coming out with startup policy and agro-food processing policy. A startup council will be formed," he said.
Deshpande also emphasised the measures taken by the state government in improving ease of doing business in the state. He invited the industrialists/businessmen from UAE region to participate in the Invest Karnataka-2016 and invest in Karnataka.
Gaurav Gupta, commissioner for industrial development and director of industries and commerce, made a presentation on the potential investment opportunities available in various sectors like manufacturing, aerospace and defence, infrastructure, textiles, agro and food processing, renewable energy, etc in the state. He assured that every effort would be made to materialise the investment proposals by providing time bound and quick approvals.
Kaushik Mukherjee, chief secretary, responded to the questions raised by the participants and clarified the concerns raised by the participants in respect of energy projects, environmental clearance issues, tourism in coastal region, etc.
Dr B R Shetty, executive vice-chairman and CEO, NMC Healthcare, UAE Exchange, Neopharma, expressed that Karnataka has tremendous potential for investments and he himself was in talks with the government of Karnataka for investment in the tourism sector. He encouraged potential investors to invest in Karnataka.
T P Seetharam, ambassador of India to UAE, who was present during the road show, expressed that time has come for UAE to invest in India and Karnataka has lot of potential for investments.
As part of the road show, B2G meetings were conducted with the following potential investment proponents:
• The KEF Company Ltd., Dubai
• Shetty International Trading LLC, Abu Dhabi
• Abu Dhabi Government represented by H E Omar Al Sahi
• Spark Est Maintenance & Oil Fields Services, Dubai
• Arab Gulf Pearl Trading Est, Dubai
• PTV MENA Region DMCC, Dubai
• Cambridge Education, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah
B2G meetings were followed by CEO round table with members of the Indian Business and Professional Council (IBPC), UAE. More than 30 top CEOs attended the round table conference.