By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, November 5, 2016 : Odisha government on Saturday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) for setting up of four more centers in the state.

The new centers would come up at Angul, Jajpur, Koraput and Sambalpur districts. With this, the number of such centers will go up to eight, highest in the country. There are STPI centers at Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Berhampur and Balasore.

“The proposed STPI centres would act as resource centres for IT/ITES and Electronics System Design and Manufacturing [ESDM] sector by offering general infrastructural facilities like ready to use Incubation Hi-Speed Data connectivity and other amenities required export of software and services. The incubation facility will be available for entrepreneurs, specially catering to the need of start-up/MSMEs/SMEs to kick start their business without any hassles,” Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said.

“I hope that the construction works for the proposed STPI centres will commence soon. I am confident that the new STPI centres in these cities would facilitate and support the entrepreneurs to explore global opportunities in IT/ITES & ESDM sector and boost up direct and indirect employment creation in the state. I congratulate the Electronics & IT department, STPI and OCAC in this endeavor”, he added.

IT exports from the state has exceeded Rs 2900 crore during the year 2015-16 and achieved national prominence in the IT map of the country. Around 90% of software exports from the state are contributed by STPI.

The state government would provide 3 acres of developed land and minimum 20,000 sq ft built-up space for each centre.

Electronics and Information Technology Minister Pranab Prakash Das, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi, Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan, STPI Director General Omkar Rai were present on the occasion.