Ministers urge industry to participate in investors’ meet

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 31

To encourage the local industry to participate in the Progressive Punjab Investors Summit to be held at ISB Mohali on December 5 and 6, Punjab Cabinet Ministers, including Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Industry Minister Sham Sunder Arora, Vinnie Mahajan ACS, Rajat Aggarwal, CEO, Invest Punjab, and other bigwigs were in the city today to have detailed interaction with local industrialists.

Aggarwal in his presentation motivated the local industry to take part in the forthcoming summit as it was basically for the MSMEs only. He said the Industries Department was making efforts to simplify norms so that the industry was comfortable in doing business in Punjab, which till now was considered an agrarian state.

He informed that the PPCB had been issued few guidelines in which the Green Industry would face no complexities or overlaps while getting NOCs/clearances etc. He said to encourage more industry to come up here at Dhanansu, where cycle valley is to be set-up, the construction of 100-feet road will soon begin.

Vinnie Mahajan said they all were here to get the direct feedback of the industry so that more improvement could be brought in the system.

Meanwhile, speaking on the occasion, Manpreet Singh Badal said, “Ever since the Capt Amarinder Singh government came to power in the state, various companies have invested more than Rs 50,000 crore in Punjab.”

He said, “Punjab is open for investments, particularly in sectors such as food and food processing, pharma, textile, agricultural machinery and IT & ITeS.”

Sunder Sham Arora said, “With only 1.5 per cent of land area, Punjab contributes three per cent to India’s GDP. Punjab is home to an estimated 2 lakh registered MSMEs, giving it a strong industrial base. Punjab offers a blend of skilled manpower, robust infrastructure, industry-driven ease of doing business initiative and friendly policies making it an ideal ecosystem for investment.”

Industrialists such as Pankaj Munjal, Rajinder Gupta, Upkar Singh etc, shared their experiences while doing business in Punjab. Prominent among those present on the occasion included MLAs Rakesh Pandey, Surinder Dawar and Sanjay Talwar and Gurpreet Singh Bassi, Chairman, PSIEC.