Punjab investor summit: Industry pitches for consistent policies

Industry leaders on Thursday stressed on consistent policies by states even during the periods of change in the ruling political dispensation. A broad consensus on continuity of state policies emerged at a session on 'Building Partnerships for Inclusive Growth', on the first day of the Progressive Punjab Investors Summit (PPIS) 2019 here.

Speaking during the session, which was also attended by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, Kotak Mahindra Bank Managing Director & CEO Uday Kotak asserted that the stability of policy was extremely important across governments and change of governments for attracting investments. "Investors love a state which is consistent with its policies, does not change taxes, does not change the rules of the game after somebody has invested whether it is a state or a country. It is extremely important," Kotak said.

Kotak described lending as an important facet of providing financial support for initiation of any new venture. Taking part in the deliberations, Hero Enterprise Chairman Sunil Kant Munjal said that Punjab was an excellent state to make investments as it has abundant peace-loving and skilled labour, besides the best infrastructure in terms of affordable and uninterrupted power.

He said the enterprising nature of Punjabis is a catalyst of industrial growth in the state. Bharti Enterprise Chairman Rakesh Bharti Mittal stressed on the need for quality education and skill development, which were prerequisite for a robust industrial base in any state.

He said the Bharti Group had made significant investment in education and sanitation in the rural sector in Punjab. It was the need to diversify agriculture and provide self-sustainable marketing mechanism to procure the produce of the farmers at remunerative prices, he said, even as underscored the need to create synergy between industry and agriculture to focus on agro based industry in the MSME sector.

Vice Chairman & Joint Managing Director, Vardhman Textiles Suchita Jain said the Vardhman Group had played a pivotal role in the industrial development of the state and had forayed into steel, after textiles. She also informed that her group had recently tied up with Japan's steel major Aiche to tap the automotive sector.

Executive Chairman, East India Hotels PRS Oberoi said that tourism and hospitality was the major sector for development of any state, and Punjab had tremendous religious tourism potential, which could be optimally utilised. Hinduja Group Europe Prakash Hinduja offered world-class technology, procured from the United States, Japan and Israel, to tackle the menace of pollution due to burning of crop residue.

Earlier, Japanese Ambassador Satoshi Suzuki thanked Amarinder for extending invitation to his country to be a part of this mega event. He hoped that the summit would prove to be a healthy platform for building partnerships between Punjab and Japan in several emerging sectors.

Punjab Additional Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan at another session, described micro, small and medium enterprises as an important engine of Punjab's industrial growth. The state government was committed to transforming the MSME into industrial giants in the coming years, she said.

Punjab Industries Minister Sunder Sham Arora signed MoUs with key e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart to enable access to new markets for the Punjab-based MSMEs. Guruprasad Mohapatra, Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), said Punjab, which have two lakh registered MSMEs, is uniquely positioned to become the supply hub for Himalayan states and other border states.

"The MSMEs in Punjab can boost the economy of the state and neighbouring states through backward and forward linkages," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)