Vibrant Gujarat Not chasing financial commitments focusing on bonding with companies

Kolkata, Nov 1 (PTI) Gujarat is not chasing the quantum of financial commitments from companies, but is focusing on bonding with them to come to the state and laying a red carpet for all companies, with a focus on defence, aerospace, green energy, semiconductors, AI, and machine learning, a Gujarat minister said on Wednesday.
    Gujarat MoS for Industry and Commerce Harsh Sanghavi was speaking here on the sidelines of the 10th edition of the Vibrant Gujarat roadshow in the city, just two days after Tata Motors won an arbitral award of Rs 766 crore (without interest) from the West Bengal government in connection to the failed Tata Nano project.
    "In the last 20 years, Gujarat has attracted a huge number of companies and signed over one lakh MoUs. Now, we are not chasing financial number commitments from the companies rather we are more focused on bonding and offering red carpet along with adequate support ecosystem for corporates which are looking to invest in Gujarat from these platforms," Sanghavi told PTI when asked about what sort of investment the state was expecting from the 10th edition of the global summit, taking place on January 10-12, 2024.
    Sanghavi informed that in the last two editions of 2017 and 2019, the total commitment was Rs 20 lakh crore and the average execution rate is 75 per cent.
    He said Gujarat is the first state to bring out a semi-conductor policy and the US-based chipmaker Micron Technology has carried out the groundbreaking of its assembly, testing, and packaging plant (ATMP) in Sanand after all clearances were offered within 90 days.
    He also stated that the government has also kept adequate land around the site for ancillary projects.
    According to state industry officials, Tata Nano was the first auto project in Sasand, Gujarat after it failed to take off in Bengal. It is doing well, and after that, many auto companies have opened their shops here. Tata Motors also took over the Ford plant through its subsidiary and will focus on electric vehicles there.
    Sanghavi, who is also the junior minister for home, however, declined to react to the Tata Nano arbitral award as the ruling TMC government is at loggerheads with the BJP government.
    The minister said that several companies from Bengal have expressed interest in investing in Gujarat, but he cannot disclose details due to sensitivity reasons.
    Gujarat will hold 12 roadshows in India and six international roadshows in total in the run-up to the global summit in January next year.
    He said that in 2003 when the idea of a business and investment summit was unheard of, Prime Minister Narendra Modi came up with the Vibrant Summit.
    Through the Vibrant Summit, Narendra Modi brought global capital investors and thought leaders together on a single platform.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)