OdishaLIVE Bureau

The five-day Make in Odisha Conclave – flagship biennial business event of the Government of Odisha is on the second day. The idea of the conclave is to showcase the policy & regulatory environment, investment opportunities across focus sectors and the manufacturing prowess of the State. This is the second conclave – the previous one was held in 2016 – and the government has high hopes on this investment summit. In the run-up to the conclave, the state government had organized road shows in New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Similar shows were also held at foreign locations in China, Japan, Italy, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Germany. Some 800 corporate leaders are attending the second edition.  Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani will be the star speaker at Business Leadership Summit. Industrialists from Japan, France, Germany, Russia, Saudi Arabia and UAE are slated to attend the event.  The striking feature of Make in Odisha 2.0 is a Japan-focused seminar. Opportunities in the manufacturing sector in Odisha would be showcased to Japanese companies.

Top Japanese firms such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsui, JFE Steel, Marubeni, Nissin Foods and Takahata Precision have confirmed their participation at the biennial conclave. The state government has identified 600 acres on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar where Japanese companies can cluster and set up their operations. What’s interesting is the conclave will provide leadership perspective from industry captains to inspire next generation leaders.The prime objective of this year’s conclave is, besides getting investment, also showcasing Odisha in its entirety, particularly outside the state and country. Based on extensive road shows in the domestic circuit and at foreign destinations, the government’s internal assessment is that this year’s conclave may see some 3 trillion rupees. Apart from the metals sector, which is expected to have a dominant share in the projected investments, emerging sectors such as tourism and electronics manufacturing are also likely to be major draws at the event. The conclave is said to be a watershed moment in Odisha’s industrialization journey. It has been planned in a scale that has not been seen before. If the government’s groundwork is any indication the conclave should show the way ahead for the Naveen government its attempt to industrializing Odisha.The response from investors’ community too has been very encouraging.

At the inaugural edition of the Make in Odisha conclave in 2016, the state attracted 124 investment intents valued at Rs 2.03 trillion. Sixty-five per cent of these projects are claimed to have been at various stages of approval or implementation, bettering the record of other investor-friendly states. In fact, three of these have gone into production. The fact that Odisha wants   an emerging manufacturing hub of Eastern India and wants to offer huge investment opportunities is beyond dispute.

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