Goa, known for its pristine beaches and fun-loving culture is attempting to changing gear from being a tourism revenue-led state to an industry destination.
Assuring political stability to investors, the state government led by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant unveiled a new industrial policy that includes ease in land allotments for potential investors.
Considering that it lacks vast stretches of land and the state’s ecologically sensitive regions, the administration said it is only inviting investments from ‘green industries’, which include logistics and warehousing, IT/ITeS, food processing, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology; electronics manufacturing to name a few.
The western state on Monday organised its first ever investor’s meet, “Invest Goa 2024”. It was a modest beginning at a conference hall of a five star hotel without the presence of top guns like the Ambanis, Adanis, Tatas or Birlas.
Dempo Group, which is the state’s biggest industrial house announced it will set up a 200 rooms five star hotel and said it would get into power co-generation. Rasna International announced setting up a Goan cashew based food processing unit.
TVS Industrial and Logistics Park committed to invest ₹125 crore, the largest investment announced at the summit with employment potential for 250 people.
The State’s Industry Minister Mauvin Godinho was hopeful more MoUs would be signed in the coming days. “We do not want big industries here as we lack land. So we have not invited big corporate houses. We want medium and small enterprises to set up non polluting factories,” Mr Godinho said in an interview.
“Today the contribution of tourism and industry is almost same as our GDP. We want to change this and want industry and tourism to to grow,” he said
(The writer was at the Summit at the government’s invitation)
Published - January 29, 2024 09:52 pm IST
