By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, November 12, 2018: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday succeeded in luring huge investment to the state with the country’s top industry leaders committing to invest in fresh projects and expansion of their existing facilities marking successful beginning of “Make in Odisha Conclave 2018”.

The state, on the second day of the Make in Odisha Conclave 2018, received investment proposals to Rs one lakh crore, which will go a long way as positive campaign for the ruling Biju Janata Dal headed by Naveen in thr run up to 2019 general elections.

India Inc’s who is who such as Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekharan, Vedanta Group chairman Anil Agarwal, JSPL chairman Naveen Jindal, JSW chairman Sajjan Jindal and Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla were among others made investment promises while participating in the plenary session of the Conclave.

Reliance had already invested Rs 6000 crore in Odisha and will invest an additional Rs 3,000 crore in the next three years, according to Mukesh Ambani. The fresh investment would create 30,000 job opportunities in the state, he added.

Tata Sons Group chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran committed investment to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore saying that the Group had already invested Rs 75,000 crore in Odisha.

Similarly, JSPL chairman Naveen Jindal announced to increase the capacity of the facility to 20 million tonnes per annum by 2030 by a fresh investment of Rs 55,000 crore. JSPL has already investment Rs 45,000 crore at his 6-million-tonne steel plant at Anugul, he remarked.

Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, who also attended the conclave, announced an investment of 2 billion US dollars (around Rs 15,000 crore) in Odisha in the next two years.

Vedanta Resource chairman Anil Agarwal said, “The state offers one of the best natural resources and also human resources. Odisha is a place for entrepreneurs. We don’t seek jobs, we provide jobs.

Besides, an MoU was signed between Singapore’s ITEES and Odisha’s OSDA for skill development to co-operate and establish a World Skill Centre at Bhubaneswar.

Kenji Hiramatsu, Ambassador of Japan to India, said as Japan and Odisha take their relationship forward, the investments being made will focus on improving health, environment, sanitation and skill development.

On the other hand, SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar said: “Whatever the investments promised by the investors present here today, they only need to worry about one third, we will provide the two thirds.”

The happy chief minister assured the companies to provide unmatched facilitation support from the government and urged them to plan a long term strategy for investment in the State over the next 10 years.

“With a view to give further impetus to certain key manufacturing sectors, we have laid down the Odisha Industrial Development Plan: Vision 2025 with a target of attracting investment of Rs 2,50,000 crore and creation of 30 lakh job opportunities in six identified focus sectors by 2025,” he said.

During the last 18 months, 310 start-ups have been registered and 40 of them have already been provided with assistance. “We aim to be among top three start-up hubs in the country by supporting at least 1000 start-ups by 2020. We have built a world-class infrastructure – a 18-storeyed World Skill Centre – in Bhubaneswar and more than 1,50,000 trainers and trainees will be trained in the next four years under this project,” the CM stated.

Naveen also recalled the first edition of ‘Make in Odisha Conclave’ in 2016 claiming that it was a huge success with 124 investment intents, worth more than Rs 2 lakh crore and employment opportunities for above one lakh people. “About two-third of these projects are in various stages of implementation,” he added.