UP Global Investors Summit: Denmark to set up river lab in Varanasi, Singapore says it has pledged ₹29,000 crore investments

Denmark and Singapore, two of the world’s cleanest countries and partner nations in the Uttar Pradesh Global Investors’ Summit that started in Lucknow on Friday, announced plans to invest in the country’s most populous state. They added that the state’s image makeover under Yogi Adityanath played a key role in their decision.

Denmark, ranked on top on the Enviromental Performance Index (EPI), announced plans to set up a smart river laboratory in Varanasi to monitor the cleaning of the Ganga as well as that of its tributary, the river Varuna.

Danish minister for development, cooperation and global climate policy Dan Jorgensen made the announcement in the presence of U.P’s Jal Shakti minister Swatantra Dev Singh. The two countries have signed an MoU worth ₹1000 crore for river cleaning. Denmark is expected to provide funds and expertise for a state-of-the-art laboratory for clean rivers.

Singapore also announced big investment with its high commissioner to India, Simon Wong, stating, “As first partner country, we have signed 20 MoUs with investments of above ₹29000 crore, above 4 billion dollars. We are here to say that we believe in UP, we believe in CM Yogi and we believe in UP’s vision of a one trillion-dollar economy.”

The clean river laboratory project of Denmark would be set up under the Jal Shakti ministry, which has already undertaken Namami Gange, an initiative aimed at cleaning Ganga and its tributaries.

“U.P. is fueling India’s growth,” Jorgensen said and expressed the intent to work with “visionary chief minister Yogi Adityanath.” Jorgensen also tweeted a photo of his with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Great honour to meet PM Narendra Modi today. India is a key partner on green transition and climate. Looking forward to further strengthening our green strategic partnership,” he tweeted.

Jorgensen underlined the fact that the rejuvenation of Ganga’s tributaries, especially the Varuna river in Varanasi, will hugely help the people and said the partnership between the two nations, sets direction on scale, skills, speed, scope, and sustainability. He also reiterated his commitment to eradicating diabetes.

Swatantra Dev Singh also spoke of the BJP government’s mission to provide water to every household through the Jal Jeevan Mission, the progress of which has come in praise from Prime Minister of Denmark too.

“Under PM Modi, India is continuously working with Denmark to save the environment through the green partnership,” said Singh, while highlighting decades-old relationship between the two countries.

At the other partner country session, Singapore’s high commissioner to India Simon Wong spoke highly of Adityanath. “We have been the number 1 investor in India for the eighth year in a row. Many of our investors are concentrated in the south as our forefathers come from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, so we hadn’t been mostly looking towards north earlier but that is changing now. Before I met chief minister Yogiji, we walked around the city of Lucknow in T-shirts, we also visited Gorakhpur and asked people, if they liked Yogi ji. They said they do because his new government had solved a lot of problems for them,” Wong said.

“In July, we found out that U.P. was hosting GIS and one week before the announcement I urged urban development minister AK Sharma to get me an audience with Yogiji. During our meeting, I urged the CM to make us partner country. Yogiji asked me if I knew about the partner country initiative and I said, yes and here we are,” he added.

Urban development minister AK Sharma recalled his many trips to Singapore, both independently and as a bureaucrat in Gujarat under the then chief minister Narendra Modi.

“Several masons from U.P. have helped build Singapore and now it’s Singapore’s turn to help U.P,” Sharma said to applause.