New Delhi, Sep 13, 2004
IANS
NRIpress
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh left here Monday with senior
officials on an 11-day visit to England, Switzerland and Germany for
road shows to woo foreign investors in the mineral-rich state.
In his first overseas trip as chief minister, Raman Singh hopes to
clinch major deals for foreign investment, particularly in the steel
sector and power generation in which the state has surplus capacity.
"My visit is basically aimed to have money inflow to Chhattisgarh
especially those investors keen to set up industries in India,"
the 51-year-old chief minister said prior to his departure.
"So far investors have not been given authentic reports about
the minerals found in the state. I would like to put up the case before
potential investors," Raman Singh told IANS.
He said his trip would propel investors, mainly non-resident Indians
(NRIs), to seriously consider Chhattisgarh as a major investment destination.
Last month the Bharatiya Janata Party-governed state had signed memorandums
of understanding (MoUs) with 11 corporate houses worth over $700 million
for setting up steel and power plants in Chhattisgarh.
So far Chhattisgarh - which was carved out of Madhya Pradesh on Nov
1, 2000 - has signed investment agreements with different business houses
for a total of $3.7 billion.
"We will receive foreign investment on the very first day of the
trip on Sep 13 with the signing of an MoU with Lanco Amarkantak Power
in London for a 600 MW power plant," said Shivraj Singh, the state's
principal secretary for industry.
He is also scheduled to meet with Anil Agrawal, the London-based NRI
and chairman of multibillion-dollar Sterlite group, on Sep 14.
The meeting assumes significance since Sterlite has a 51-percent stake
in the state's Korba-based Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd (Balco).
"It will be a meeting for which we are all waiting eagerly,"
says Shailesh Pathak, managing director, Chhattisgarh State Industrial
Development Corp.
"Sterlite is one of the major groups that we would like to encourage
for setting up industries in our state. Balco is currently on an expansion
drive and by 2006 it would surpass Aditya Birla Group's Hindalco and
the government-owned NALCO with over 350,000 tonne per annum aluminium
production."
Chhattisgarh is said to have 20 percent of India's iron ore deposits
and 23 per cent of the total coal production.