Bengaluru, Jan 26 (IANS): In a bid to increase industrial production capacity, Karnataka is developing manufacturing clusters in nine districts under "compete with China" scheme of the state, Governor Vajubhai Vala said on Saturday.

"The state government is implementing the 'Compete with China' scheme, by developing industrial clusters in nine districts. Action is being taken to create one lakh jobs in each cluster," the Governor said in his Republic Day address here.

The southern state, which is a pioneer in IT and manufacturing businesses, had approved 1,958 projects with an investment of Rs 3.49 lakh-crore, under its Industrial Policy 2014-19, Vala said.

These projects will create employment opportunities to 10.28 lakh people, he added.

"Karnataka stood first in the country in attracting investments," Vala said in his speech.

According to the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry's data from November last year, Karnataka saw the highest investment in the country for the first three quarters of 2018.

The ruling Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S)-Congress coalition government led by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy last year announced identifying nine districts across the state to set up industrial clusters to foster innovation and product diversification, thereby creating new jobs.

Ballari, Bidar, Chikkaballapura, Chitradurga, Hassan, Kalaburagi, Kolar, Koppal and Mysuru were identified for the scheme, by developing industries that could compete with China in industrial production.

The scheme aims to have manufacturing-related activities taking place right from village level, to the taluk (sub-district) and district levels of each cluster.