Odisha CM set to embark on 2nd foreign trip in 22-year tenure

Bhubaneswar: Exactly after 10 years, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is all set to embark on a foreign trip later this month. This will be his second overseas visit ever since he assumed the Office of Chief Minister on March 5, 2000.

Official sources said Patnaik will visit UAE and Rome to attend several events, including an industrial and an investors’ meet. He is scheduled to leave the state capital on June 28.

The CM is also likely to meet Prabasi Odias (non-resident Odias) in the gulf and European nations during his visit.

Naveen, who was a frequent flyer to western countries prior to his debut in politics in 1997, refrained from touring to foreign countries after becoming the Chief Minister.

He had made his maiden foreign trip since he took over as Odisha CM, when he visited Britain for eight days in May, 2012. He had visited the foreign country on the invitation of Department for International Development (DfID), which supported Odisha in tackling malnutrition, modernising Government initiatives and improving SC and ST girls’ education, to undertake a trip to England to hold consultations with their representatives and experts, official sources said.