PM to launch global meet on emerging Kerala

 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the three-day ‘Emerging Kerala-2012 Global Connect’ at Kochi on September 12 that will showcase ‘God’s own country’ to the world.

Disclosing this at a function organised here on Monday, Kerala Minister for Industry and Information Technology P K Kunhalikutty said the Kerala Government viewed this global summit as a “major opportunity to present the state before the business fraternity across the world”.

Besides union cabinet ministers and India’s corporate leaders, foreign dignitaries and foreign delegates, including China, USA, UK and the Middle East, will be participating in the conclave, Kunhalikutty said. With Kerala already having achieved “remarkable progress” in human development indices, “we hope to use this event to launch us on a path of faster and sustainable growth,” he added.

Citing Kerala’s skilled manpower and a large consumer market of over 33 million people as among the State’s key attractions to make it a “truly global investment destination”, the Minister outlined some of the mega infrastructure projects that are already in the pipeline. These were among the new ‘investment opportunities’ in Kerala, he pointed out.

Mangalore connect

The mega infrastructure projects included the High Speed Rail Corridor project connecting Thiruvananthapuram and Mangalore, envisaged an investment of Rs 45,000 crore in the first phase. The project when completed would reduce the transit time between the two places to just four hours, he said.

It will be the first ‘high speed rail’ in South Asia, said Akilesh Kumar Sharma, Kerala Industries Secretary. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) was doing a detailed feasibility study of the project and “we are looking for a partner” to implement it in the Public Private-Partnership (PPP) mode, he said. The huge success of tourism in Kerala was a “perfect model of collaboration” between industry and Government in the last 10 to 15 years and has brought Rs1000 crore worth investments to the tourism sector alone in Kerala, said Madhavan Nambiar, Vice-Chairman, Organising Committee. The CII and NASSCOM are partnering with Kerala Government in this major event.