The inaugural day of the 9th edition of Vibrant Gujarat Summit at Gandhinagar witnessed a range of leaders and corporates, from across the world announcing huge investments for the state. The event was also marked by the presence of the Prime Minister and former Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi. So far, the investors have announced investments worth more than 4 lakh crore for the state.
We are honoured by the presence of many Heads of State and Government and several other distinguished delegates.
-PM Narendra Modi at #VibrantGujaratSummit#VibrantGujarat2019 #VG2019 #ShapingANewIndia #VGGS pic.twitter.com/JVJuXmH8Ww— Vibrant Gujarat (@VibrantGujarat) January 18, 2019
The first day of the biennial investment summit was attended by big corporates of India and the world. Corporates like Reliance Industries, Tata Group, Aditya Birla Group, Suzuki Motor Corporation announced investments for the state, and also praised efforts undertaken by PM Modi in during his tenure.
Reliance Industries Limited chairman Mukesh Ambani announced investments worth Rs 3 lakh crore for the state, to be rolled in the next ten years.
“Gujarat is Reliance’s Janmabhoomi as well as Karmabhoomi. We have so far invested Rs 3 lakh crores in Gujarat and created and catalysed over one million livelihood opportunities. Reliance will double this investment and employment numbers over the next ten years” Mukesh Ambani announced. He also said that he has been attending the summit since its inception, and said that it is very satisfying that every other state is following the Gujarat model of investments. He also lauded PM Modi for his leadership and making the country the fastest growing economy in the world. Though he did not elaborate on the investment plans, he said that most of it will be in the telecom and digital technologies space.
In addition to this, Rs 55,000 crore investments were announced by Gautam Adani, chairman of Aditya Group. He said that a major chunk of the investments done by the group will be directed towards the installation of the world’s largest Solar Hybrid Park in Khavda. He also announced 1 GW data centre park in Mundra, copper smelting project, cement manufacturing plant in Lakhat and an integrated Lithium battery complex for the state. Adani, too, praised efforts undertaken by PM Modi for the upliftment of people of India, in the last five years.
Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla announced investments worth Rs 15,000 crore for the state. Out of which Rs 7,500 crore investment will be done for Grasim viscose staple fibre plant at Vilayat and Indian Rayon viscose filament yarn plant at Veraval. He also added that Rs 1000 crore investment will be done in filed of Chemical industries.
“Gujarat has seen exponential growth without compromising on macroeconomic stability. It’s on the back of the remarkable business-friendly environment that Aditya Birla Group has rapidly increased investments in the state,” Birla was quoted by reports.
Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran announced that his group will invest majorly in the field of Lithium-ion batteries manufacturing unit in the state. He also added that investments will be undertaken to expand the capacity of sodium ash production for the state.
In addition to Indian corporates, several international corporates also announced investments for the state. Corporates like Russian based Rosneft announced $850 million investments for the refinery plant in the state.
“Nayara Energy will sign MoU with the Gujarat government for investing 850 million dollars for phase 1 expansion plan which will see the establishment of a new refinery and petrochemical units,” Rosneft Didier Casimiro, global head of Rosneft announced.
The leaders of five countries—Uzbekistan, Rwanda, Denmark, Czech Republic and Malta were part of delegation present at the summit.
PM Modi, while addressing the delegates said that India is set to be amongst Top 50 countries in ease of doing the business index.
“India is now ready for business. In the last four years, we have jumped 65 places of global ranking of ease of doing business. I have asked my team to work harder to ensure India is on the top 50 next years,” PM Modi said at the summit.
Listing out the measures the Central Government has taken since last four-and-a-half years to boost the economy, PM Modi said, “In the last 2 years, we have moved toward a low-tax regime on the Corporate side. We have lowered the tax from 30% to 25% for new investments as well as small and medium ventures.” He added that the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth USD 260 billion was received, which is about 45% of the FDI received in the last 18 years.
The Vibrant Gujarat Summit had started during the tenure of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The Summit was established, so as to attract investments in the state, which had suffered a major earthquake in 2001 and was jolted by communal riots in 2002.
