JOIN USKarnataka crushes GIM goals, signs MoUs worth Rs 10 lakh crore
The Global Investors' Meet turned out to be a productive outing for Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai as his government bagged investment proposals worth Rs 9.8 lakh crore, almost double the expectations it had before the start of the event.
This investor meet was an extraordinary effort during an extraordinary time, Bommai said during his 45-minute address concluding the three-day event on Friday.
"When the whole world is reeling under recession, governments are trying to meet both ends in their respective countries and there is an economic crisis… in such a time, our state, in a federal structure of our country India, called Karnataka dares to do this investor meet," the CM said.
The comments came during what could be Bommai’s last big outreach to investors before the state goes to polls in 2023.
“The success of Global Investors' Meet – Invest Karnataka 2022 has proved the naysayers wrong and will prove to be a shot in the arm for micro and small-scale industries,” said Narasimhamurthy K N, the president of the Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association.
While the first day of the event saw close to Rs 5.6 lakh crore worth MoUs being signed, the final figure was close to Rs 10 lakh crore, as green hydrogen and renewable energy sectors grabbed about 50 per cent share of the pie.
Bommai said the amount of MoUs signed meant little to him as he was more focused on turning these promises to projects. A memorandum of understanding, or MOU, is a nonbinding agreement that states each party's intentions to take action, execute a business deal, or form a new partnership.
"Conversion factor is more important to me," Bommai told a packed auditorium on Friday.
He, however, pointed out that the amount of MoUs approved so far in GIM 2022 already exceeded the cumulative value of projects approved during the 2000, 2010, 2012 and 2016 editions.
Show me the money
About 30 per cent of the Rs 9.8 lakh crore worth MoUs signed so far, have already been given necessary approvals through the single clearance window or the high-level clearance committee. The government will give a report card on the rest of the projects after three months, said Bommai.
KASSIA also appealed to the government to ensure that the investment proposals were given all the necessary permissions and approvals within three months, as promised.
The chief minister also expressed his intent to invite only serious investors.
"I don't want to give all clearances just to let the companies market them in the stock markets. MoU is not for that. My government wants a genuine investor, who stands by whatever he has said," Bommai pointed out.
While lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Karnataka government for their reformist mindset on creating an industry-friendly climate, KASSIA hoped that there would be a visible improvement in plugging the lacunae in the existing infrastructure in all the industrial estates and also in the opening of new estates for micro and small scale industries "which was their number one deficiency".
The CM seemed to aim bigger.
"I am sure we are going to compete with Gulf on who produces the first hydrogen fuel and ammonia. This is my vision. And I am going to produce before Gulf (does). Of course, they have better infrastructure, I agree. But we have got the resolve, our determination. And we are at it,” Bommai said. “You are going to see the first renewable energy in hydrogen when we start breaking ground by February/March. That is my target."