Panaji, Sep 30 (IANS): Involvement of government Ministers in matters of facilitation of investment in the Information Technology sector is proving to be a bottleneck for the industry's growth, the Goa Information Technology Professionals Association said on Wednesday, urging the state government to bypass centralised permissions for IT projects.

In a statement on Wednesday, the association also recommended a slew of measures for making the coastal state a business and investor-friendly proposition.

"Eliminate the practice of obtaining approvals from Ministers and Chairpersons for investment proposals. It has been proved time and again that this centralisation of the otherwise decentralised file movement process is a major bottleneck. Despite having the highest per capita number of government employees, if Goa shows such a dismal performance it is clear that we need to fix the bottlenecks in the processes being followed," the IT professionals association said while rooting for a single-window system for clearance of projects.

The Association has also requested uninterrupted power and Internet connectivity and better use of online avenues for facilitation of government permissions to do away with bureaucratic delays.

"Robust e-governance systems will enable government employees to work from anywhere, streamlining the governance processes and ensure that hurdles are minimised in meeting permission deadlines. This needs investment in infrastructure for setting up an integrated system. Benefits of e-governance are well known. We are sure the local IT community will readily help in this effort for evaluating the technical option," the Association added.

The demands come days after Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said the government was analysing the reasons why the state had slipped in the 'Ease of Governance' ranking from 19th to 24th position in the latest ranking list announced by the Central government.