MP will become 'economic tiger of India' in two years: Kamal Nath

The CM, however, refuses to get into figures at the end of ‘Magnificent MP’

Chief Minister Kamal Nath said a five year road map for economic growth of the state is ready Chief Minister Kamal Nath said a five year road map for economic growth of the state is ready

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Friday said that within next two years the state would emerge as the ‘economic tiger of India’. Talking to media persons at the conclusion of the day-long investors’ summit ‘Magnificent MP’ in Indore, the chief minister said that a five year road map for economic growth of the state is ready and the government is working backwards from the target with month-wise plan.

While repeatedly refusing to give any figures of investments promises made during the summit and saying that he did not believe in such optics, Kamal Nath asserted that the confidence of investors in the state was the most important thing and they had displayed this amply during the summit.

However, he did refer to some solid proposals that came up during the summit, among them are Rs 1,200 crore each worth investments of India Cements and an Israel-based company, the intention of setting up of a Japanese Investment Park by JETRO (Japan External Trade Organisation) and diversification plan of a steroid company. The CM highlighted the state’s potential in pharmaceutical and Information Technology sectors.

Chief secretary S.R. Mohanty shared that the Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has proposed to set up national distribution centres (NDCs) at 45 locations in the state using up area of one crore square feet. This will boost the potential of MP as a logistics and warehousing hub.

Nath said that the state government wanted to create an easy and confidence-generating atmosphere for investors in the state and towards this, sector-wise investment policies have been chalked out. Also, sector-wise meeting would be held soon to turn the proposals into investments.

He mentioned that MP was not affected by economic slowdown and the investment sentiment was good in the state. He also reiterated that the industries would have to give 70 per cent employment to Madhya Pradesh people.

The chief minister also highlighted that if any company holds land here, they needn’t make rounds of the government departments for pre-approvals and can start their work instead. “We will trust their self-certification regarding norms and rules. We will check them only after three years and very strict action would be initiated if violations were found.”

“While I am not going into figures of how many MoUs we signed or how much investment was promised, I can assure you that this summit is the start point of new investment history that MP would write,” the CM said.

About 900 industrialists participated in the summit and held discussions with the officials of Madhya Pradesh in eight sessions. Prominent among the participants were Chairman of Godrej Group Adi Godrej, Chairman of the Kirloskar Group Vikram Kirloskar, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Enterprises Rakesh Bharti, Chairman of Trident Group Rajendra Gupta, Chairman of ITC Ltd. Sanjeev Puri, Managing Director of Lapp India Marc Jarrault, Chairman of Sun Pharmaceuticals Dilip Sanghvi, Chairman of HEG Ravi Jhunjhunwala and Director General of CII Shri Chandrajeet Banerjee. Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries addressed the summit through video conferencing.