• Home
• /
• Local business

Madhya Pradesh to replicate Dubai success

A high-level delegation from India is in Dubai for a four-day trip to boost investment opportunities in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

The delegation is led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, along with cabinet ministers Yashodhara Raje Scindia, Minister for Commerce, Industries and Employment and Chairman of the State Industrial Development Corporation, and Umashankar Gupta, Higher Education Minister.

On Wednesday, Gulf Petrochem-Sharjah hosted an interactive session focused on encouraging Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to tap into investment opportunities in the various sectors of the state.

“We are striving to replicate the success of Dubai in Madhya Pradesh as it has now become a global hub tapping all the key economic sectors to open investment opportunities. Similarly we are also here to open more business opportunities through our aggressive plans to boost our economy back home,” Chouhan said.

“MP (Madhya Pradesh) today is at centre stage to prove that it is in midst of changing its image from an agriculture economy to an industrial economy, and we are here to take that message to the world through Dubai.”

The chief minister also promoted a forthcoming event, “Invest Madhya Pradesh — Global Investors Summit”, scheduled from October 8 through 10. The three-day event will showcase the strengths and industry of MP and provide a global platform for interaction with Indian industry leaders, heads of states, policy makers, investors and other stakeholders.

The state’s core sectors are agricultural business, automobile and engineering, healthcare, industrial infrastructure, IT, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, technical education and skills development, textiles, tourism and urban development.

Madhya Pradesh currently boasts a record of 25 per cent growth in agriculture for the year — the highest in India. It also has road projects worth $5 billion and a land bank of 20,000 hectares available for investment.

“Our state is currently being led by the right leadership, which wants our state to be noticed globally and to change our image to an industrial- and investment-based economy. Hence the delegation has visited Dubai to boost mutual trade relations. Our economy back home has registered a double-digit growth this year and expect to sustain the same — or higher — in the current year. We are trying to assess if we can also bring in [the] success of Dubai [to] our state,” Scindia said.

Bharatbhai Shah, a prominent Dubai-based Indian businessman, said: “We are optimistic that Dubai NRIs will find attractive investment opportunities during this event. Also, we are planning a large delegation to attend the ‘Invest Madhya Pradesh’ which will give a deeper insight to the business fraternity here to make right decisions.”

Echoing similar sentiments, Sudhir Goyal, managing director, Gulf Petrochem, said: “This was our maiden attempt to get best from Dubai and MP under one umbrella, and ‘Interactive Session’ today proved that Dubai offers low cost financing, entrepreneur skills among other benefits, and similarly MP offers tremendous business opportunities which could benefit the NRIs here.”

— sandhya@khaleejtimes.com