By Saraswathi Muniappan
COCHIN, Kerala state, India, (NNN-Bernama) – India’s southern state, Kerala is wooing environment friendly foreign investment in an array of areas to emerge as a strong and vibrant economy and create more job opportunities for its people.
The state on the Malabar Coast in southwest India is well connected via air-link, sea routes and houses India’s first International Container Transshipment Terminal and excellent data and telecommunications connectivity throughout the state.
“But, we recognise that such facilities alone will not bring investment and investors. We recognise our weaknesses and limitations in areas where we are yet to realise our full potential,” its chief minister, Oommen Chandy said.
Hence, Emerging Kerala, which attracted some 2,000 delegates from 50 countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and other countries, including Malaysia, is part of a process for creating a climate for investment, he said.
“Our objective is to present to the world about the quality and quantity of business opportunities available in Kerala for investment and the mechanisms and processes that are in place to convert these opportunities into reality.”
Emerging Kerala, a three-day event that ended on Friday, is all about deepening and intensifying the already deep global and national connect of Kerala.
“This is an expression of the collective will of our people to scale greater heights beyond the successes in achieving social goals,” he said.
Harvard University’s Economic Professor, Gita Gopinath quashed the perception that a social welfare oriented state cannot be successful on the economic front.
“Scandinavian countries, such Sweden and Norway are great example of how a social welfare focused nations can still rank high as favoured investment destination,” she said.
Kerala with 93.91 per cent literacy rate has huge educated population and the state should take advantage of that, she said.
“Kerala needs jobs for its educated and skilled workforce. There is a large group of highly educated people in Kerala who can’t find job in the state,” she said.
Currently, more than two million Keralites work outside the state, mainly in the Gulf region and contributing 22 per cent to Kerala's Gross Domestic Product via remittance.
Gita, who is a Keralite herself, said the state should look forward to investments in core sectors such as information technology, tourism, healthcare as well as banking and investment.
The tourism potential of Kerala is immense and its beach front of 700km provides a unique enclave for international tourist with annual growth of 15 per cent and seven per cent in domestic arrivals, Malaysia’s Special Envoy to India and South Asia for Infrastructure, S. Samy Vellu said.
“By 2021, three million foreign tourists and 18 million domestic tourists would have patronised Kerala. To propel this growth, eco-friendly investment through Public-Private Partnership must be encouraged,” he said.
The state, also known for its abundant scenic beauty, earned itself the widely acclaimed name, “God’s Own Land.”
Medical and Ayurveda city is another area Kerala should work on, he suggested.
“Develop an Ayurveda City with state of the art infrastructure with modern hospitals, affordable, “green apartment” and cutting edge research and development centres,” he said.
The Indian Ayurvedic market size is estimated at Rs80 billion (US$1.45 billion) and it is growing substantially between 10 per cent and 15 per cent with the same growth rate targeted for the next 10 years, said Samy Vellu.
A slew of financially viable projects in the infrastructure sector were presented namely tplan to make five canals in Kochi navigational and connect it with the road network and the metro rail system.
Gita also pointed out that the state government should channel its incentives to young entrepreneurs, as they would create job. Older companies, including micro, small and medium enterprises do not create new jobs.
“The plans and ideas are very good but the most important thing is implementation, and more than that, the acceptance of foreign investors by the locals,” Malaysian-owned SI Property (Kerala) Pvt Ltd managing director, SN Raghuchandran Nair, said.
Firstly, Keralites should be educated that foreign investment is good for their state.
“The Kerala state government is committed in development with care and sustainability, but the locals feel that the foreigners will loot their state,” he said.
It was reported that as the event was set to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last Wednesday, numerous organisations gathered in strength to express their disapproval of a move that many fear could “submerge” Kerala.
People gathered with placards against the programme on the main streets of Kochi.
Raghuchandran also opined that generally in India there is lack of long-term planning, which needs to be address in order to have sustainable development.
“Kerala used to have energy surplus but not anymore, we have good rainfall but with the lack of proper rain harvesting planning and infrastructure, we also have water deficit,” he pointed out.
Chief executive officer of Bangalore-based Krystile Consultancy, Latha Mohandas was also a little skeptical, saying, “Emerging Kerala is very interesting but it depends on the seriousness of the state in going all out for it.”
Having attended several such events in other states, she said while they often talk about single window clearance, when, “we take business seriously and go to invest in the respective state, no single window clearance is available,” she said.
The difficulties in land acquisition are really a hindrance for infrastructure investors in India, said another participant.
“The difficulties derail projects and developers incur additional cost. It will be good if the government, state or central, comes forward to give some sort of guarantee in land acquisition,” said the participant who requested anonymity.
He also said Kerala does have its own set of industrial-related and political unrest and “it is a huge problem in this state.”
The chief minister in his speech had said that words or ideology alone would not get Kerala either investors or investment and it is no longer time for vain words but for a bold constructive action.
“We hope the Kerala state government would walk their talk on this,” he stressed.--NNN-BERNAMA
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