MP Global Investors Summit: Govt releases 18 new and updated policies to make state more investor-friendly

Until about two months ago, anyone wanting to set up a hotel in Madhya Pradesh needed to seek 30 permissions. As the state government looked at increasing its investment potential, leveraging its improved infrastructure and skilled manpower, it went back to the drawing board. “The number of permissions has been brought down to 10,” said Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary Anurag Jain, adding, “this will promote ease of doing business.”

To make Madhya Pradesh investor-friendly, the state government released 18 new and updated policies during the Global Investors Summit. These policies were released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he inaugurated the summit in Bhopal.

These policies include Madhya Pradesh Industry Policy 2025, and policies for sectors like MSME export promotion, logistics, startups, animation and gaming, semiconductors, drone promotion, film tourism, tourism, city gas distribution, aviation, renewable energy, health investment and integrated township.

While the impact of new policies will be visible as new investments pour in, the manner in which tourism is taking off is huge. The heritage corridor around the Mahakal Temple in Ujjain has transformed the city. The footfall has increased from one crore a year to five crore. This has prompted the residents to convert their houses into bed and breakfast accommodations. The MP tourism’ campaign has always been eye-catching ones. The changes in the tourism policy may further spur growth, the officials argued.

In fact, the changes in all the policies have been done after extensive meetings with the stakeholders. Similarly, the integrated township policy looks at increasing the scope of industrial estates as they may need to make provisions to set up skill centres or affordable housing for the workers or even create common infrastructure and testing or certification centres.

“The policies will spur a lot of growth. We have aimed to make them transparent and equitable. We have worked on the whole ecosystem to create ease of doing business,” Jain said.

As scores of investors from India and abroad gathered at the expansive campus of the Manav Sangharalya, the mood was upbeat among the officials and state government.

“When one did a Google search on Bhopal, only reference to the painful past – Gas tragedy – came out. Now, with it has changed. Global Investors Summit has changed that,” Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said. The successful conduct of the summit has come as an image booster for the first-time CM.

Foreign collaborations

Addressing a separate session on collaboration with German industries, Chief Secretary Jain said there are infinite possibilities of mutual business relations between Madhya Pradesh and Germany. Many German companies are already working in India and Madhya Pradesh and their business experience is good.

Highlighting the positive work environment in the state, Jain told the Germans about the Public Service Delivery Guarantee Act, which had helped Madhya Pradesh provide an example of effective administration to the world as timely provision of public services has been made legally mandatory.

Hard-selling his state, Jain said, “There are abundant land resources here. Electricity production is in surplus condition. If the industries want, they can be supplied electricity separately. There is abundant solar energy during the day. The law and order situation is good. On the request of German companies, the state government can also make housing arrangements for their appointed human resources. Germany can provide assistance in setting up skill development centers in Madhya Pradesh. This is a state of peace. The biggest speciality is that here everyone has easy access to law and order and administration.”