Global Investors' Summit: MP government banks on Modi factor

The Madhya Pradesh government is banking on the 'Modi factor' to boost the investment climate during Global Investors' Summit to be held in Indore from October 8-10.

"India's rating has been going up ever since Modi government came to power and this combined with the chief minister's investor-friendly reputation will ensure that the Global Investors Summit is a success," state commerce and industry minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia said on Monday.

India's GDP growth rate for the first quarter of the financial year climbed to 5.7%, beating market expectations. The GDP growth of Madhya Pradesh is already in double digits.

"We have seen what the investment climate was two years ago. However, things have turned around in the last few months and many companies are eager to sign agreements with us," she said adding that the government delegation has received good response during their business interactions in different parts of the country.

The state government has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the summit and is awaiting a confirmation from PMO. "The Prime Minister's presence at the event will give a boost to the government's effort to attract investment during the summit," a government official told HT.

The ministers said the state government has created a land bank of 20,000 hectares for industrial allocation. "There are three industrial corridors - Bhopal-Indore, Jabalpur-Singrauli and Morena-Guna where there is maximum land bank (for industrial allocation)," she said. The government, she said, was working on improving state industrial policy 2012, land allocation policy and labour policy ahead of the summit.

Industry department officials said the summit will be far bigger in scale than the previous investors meet held in 2012. The government has identified 11 focus sectors this year including renewable energy, automobile, food processing, information technology, tourism, sports and textile and apparels.

"Last time, the focus was more on signing MoUs (memoranda of understanding) with the investors during the event. This time, expression of interests will be signed either before or after the main event. Instead, the government will be holding 15 parallel sessions on different sectors," officials said.

The government will also come out with a report card on actual investment received during the last investors meet, principal secretary (commerce and industry) Mohammed Suleman said. The government has faced a lot of flak over poor implementation of MoUs in the past.

Earlier in the day, the minister chaired a meet to review the preparations for the Global Investors Summit. She instructed the officials to ensure that all the preparations for the meet are completed by September 30.