State to achieve better growth in 12th Plan: Naveen

OST Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Jan 14:

Claiming that Odisha is now among the top three states in the country in attracting investments, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today said the state is poised to demonstrate even better growth in the 12^th Plan period.

“During the 11^th plan, the state’s economy remained consistent at more than 9 percent. Odisha delivered superior growth than the national economy and as per estimates, the state is poised to demonstrate even better growth in the 12^th Plan period,” said Patnaik at the Golden Jubilee celebration of Utkal Chamber of Commerce & Industries (UCCI) here.

He said Odisha is steadily becoming a preferred destination of industries on the strength of good governance and industry friendly atmosphere provided by the state government.

“The State has been able to rope in more than 90 globally reputed investors across sectors like steel, aluminium, cement, power, petroleum and many others. The RBI report for the year 2012-13 has placed Odisha at the top when it attracted more than 53 thousand crore rupees as investment in that year, which was about 27 percent of investment drawn by all states put together,” claimed the Chief Minister.

Informing that the state government has taken several policy initiatives to spur industrial growth in the state, he said the Industrial Policy Resolution, IPR-2007, Odisha MSME Development Policy 2009, the Odisha Food Processing Policy 2013 are some major endeavours to boost industrialization in the state.

“Besides, the state is also fast emerging as a hub for education, IT, Software and Healthcare facilities and urban infrastructure of international repute.  This growth of social sector along with a great cultural heritage and places of tourist interest also help in increasing preference as an investment destination,” said the Chief Minister.

He also said that the state has taken huge strides to ensure skill development of unemployed rural youth and the government is in process of up-gradation of District Employment Exchanges into Career Development Centres in PPP mode.

However, despite the tall claim of Patnaik, UCCI members are not ready to buy his claims. UCCI president Ramesh Mohapatra, it may be noted, had earlier said at the ‘Invest Bhubaneswar’ organized in December last year that the state government had not created a single entrepreneur during the last few years.

“Despite the state having well drafted policies like Agriculture Food processing policies, it has failed to create a single entrepreneur in these sectors so far. Issues relating to finance to start a new project pose a huge roadblock for aspiring entrepreneurs, especially in the agriculture sector, where the credit disbursement is below 5% of the demand,” Mohapatra had stated.