UNIDO to organise global investors' summit in Gujarat

Friday, 04 April 2003, 20:30 IST
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AHMEDABAD: Alarmed by a slowdown in industrial investment, Gujarat has tied up with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) to hold a global investors' meet and lure capital back into the state. "Gujarat is on the verge of becoming the commercial hub of India after Mumbai. UNIDO, which helps developing countries promote industrialisation by generating and disseminating knowledge about industrial matters, understands this fact," said a joint statement by UNIDO's George Assaf, Industrial Extension Bureau (iNDEXTb) managing director A.K. Sharma and state industries commissioner M. Sahu. "In Vibrat Gujarat, as the global investors' summit will be called, UNIDO shall assist iNDEXTb to identify potential investors overseas and motivate them for investment in Gujarat," UNIDO director general Carlos Alfredo Magrinos said after attending the statement signing ceremony in state capital Gandhinagar along with Chief Minister Narendra Modi. "Besides this, UNIDO shall facilitate appropriate technology exchange," he added. Two years ago, Gujarat had edged past Maharashtra as the most favoured investment destination in the country. However, the inflow has been on the decline since because of a series of natural disasters and the communal violence last year and Gujarat now does not figure among the top half a dozen investment destinations in India. The main objective of the summit will be to enhance export services in pilot enterprises for improving productivity and quality. It would aim at enabling high technology collaborations to increase and facilitate the flow of resources between entrepreneurs from Gujarat and foreign businessmen in auto components, agro-food processing, machine tools, electronics and IT. UNIDO and iNDEXTb will also formulate and suggest investment incentives, market intelligence for different products and service sector, financing schemes, sources of funding and specific industry-sector or enterprise. As part of the agreement, iNDEXTb will extend support for proactive functioning of an Inter-Regional Centre (IRC) that is being set up at the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India in Ahmedabad with the assistance of the central government and UNIDO. "For this purpose, iNDEXTb will also facilitate interaction of the trainees with existing industries to have practical inputs," said iNDEXTb's Sharma.
Source: IANS
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