Vibrant Gujarat summit: Rupani woos investors at Delhi roadshow

New Delhi: Pitching for new investment and looking for more involvement during mega Vibrant Gujarat event, the chief minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani held a meeting with industry leaders and ambassadors of several countries here on Friday at Hotel Taj Palace. The theme of the 9th edition of the biennial summit is 'Shaping a New India' and will take place on January 18-20, 2019 at Gandhinagar.

Earlier the day, Rupani held a one-to-one meeting with the Dutch Ambassador to India Marten van den Berg. During the meeting, Marten van den Berg expressed a desire to strengthen cooperation in port-led development in Gujarat.

Later, he met the Chairman of Airports Authority of India Guruprasad Mahapatra, where Mahapatra promised support for developing new airports including one at Rajpipla near the 'Statue of Unity' and second a Dholera international Airport as an extension of Ahmedabad Airport.

Gujarat has traditionally had a strong industrial base in the textile and pharmaceutical sector, and the state government also signed MoU with two textile and apparel associations namely, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) and Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) during the first roadshow.

Gujarat is also one of the biggest producers of petroleum and chemicals in the country. The engineering and machinery output is also increasing rapidly, officials claimed. Meanwhile, the state government announced over 16 different policies in the last 5 years. It has further over 30 lakh MSME catering to the requirements of infrastructure, manufacturing and services sectors of the world, as per the Ministry of MSME.

First Vibrant Gujarat was held in Ahmedabad in January 2003, when Narendra Modi was the chief minister and wanted to consolidated the state's industry-friendly image and attract fresh investments. It has been also a successful case study of branding. The summit was held again in 2005 and was made a biannual feature.

To host it, a world-class convention centre, called Mahatma Mandir, was developed in the state capital later. While addressing the event the Gujarat CM credited PM Modi for better centre-state relations.

"PM's idea of co-operative federalism has ensured that states are partners in the growth of the country. Gujarat is an example of what true federalism can do for development," Rupani asserted.

J.N. Singh, Chief Secretary of Gujarat government, M.K. Das, Additional Chief Secretary (Industries & Mines), GOG, and other senior officials were also present at the event.

The other roadshows will be organised in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata. The three-day Vibrant Gujarat Summit will focus on Africa and will have a special event called Africa Day.