By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, November 12, 2018: Odisha chief minister, Naveen Patnaik on Monday interacted with top industrialists at the 2nd edition of Make in Odisha Conclave hinting at the vast opportunities that the state offers and sought their cooperation towards developing Odisha as a manufacturing hub of South Asia.

Excerpts from the Interaction:

Anil Agarwal – We talk a lot about Industry. Would you highlight anything that Odisha has.. like it’s full of nature, Chilka lake, Tourism; any of your plan, and how you make the world excited to come here? Any plan on tourism?

Naveen – Indeed, we do have a lot of potential. We have historic temples, huge coast line of almost 500 kilometres. We have great Chilka Lake, wonderful beaches, wildlife parks. We are working very hard in tourism sector and it’s certainly been getting here, coming up very well.

Sajjan Jindal – Do you give the skill development much importance? With so much of industrialisation happening, skill development obviously has an important role.

Naveen – We have an excellent policy for skill development. We have a partnership with Singapore to which almost a 100 teachers went. In fact, we are working so hard in it that we want people to say ‘Are you skilled in Odisha?’ We are working very hard in this regard.

Sangeetha Reddy – We have been coming to this beautiful city from 2009, the time we set up the first hospital. Since then, the city has become greener, cleaner and more beautiful. You see a galaxy of industrialists. They are so happy, they are breathing happily in your city. We see the green city. What is your environment policy for the entire state? This is my first question. And the second is related to health. May you please tell about your health policy?

Naveen – As far as environment is concerned, the Odias are very tree-loving people, and Odisha is one of the few states where tree cover has grown more than the national average. As far as health is concerned, we have a new health policy, which is no health insurance as you can call it. While the Union Government’s health policy is just for people below poverty line, our health coverage is for everyone.

Mukesh Ambani – I think the global investment community is enthused with Odisha. Can you share with us the priorities of the State as you would like to see investment flows in the next 3 to 5 years? So that the priorities are matched. The second question is that you are passionate about sports and education. Can you share with us, how we in industry can contribute to your sports and education vision. So that, we can link to the youth in the State.

Naveen – As far as investment is concerned, we want to take advantage of the natural assets, what we have. Minerals assets should be developed and bring jobs to our people. Apart from minerals, we would also like to develop industry in many other areas. We are certainly succeeding in that. As far as sport is concerned, sport is for the youth and youth is for the future. So investment in sport is investment in youth and investment in youth is investment for future. So we have been developing sports facilities. I would like to thank Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla for the state-of-the-art Shooting Institute. I hope that we can produce many great players. And you all know in this month, we are having the Men’s Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar.