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Kerala to host global investors' meet

George Iype in Kochi

The Kerala government will host an international conference of non-resident Keralites and a global investors' meet to lure the overseas Indians to invest in the industry-starved state.

The two events planned by Kerala Chief Minister A K Antony government on the lines of similar programmes conducted every year by the neighbouring states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh will be to attract foreign investment to Kerala which considerably lags behind in industrial promotion and development.

While the conference of non-resident Keralites will be held in Kochi on August 20 and 21, the global investors' meet will be hosted in November.

M M Hassan, the state's Minister for Information and Non-resident Keralites department told rediff.com that though Kerala offers the best quality of life indicators in the country, investors have shied away from coming to the state due to policy faults, excessive trade unionism and the attitude of the people.

"But we can not live like an island when the rest of India is going global. So our government's serious effort is to effectively utilise the huge deposits of non-resident Indians in Kerala's banks are utilised to the fullest," Hassan said.

According to the state government statistics, the non-resident Indian deposits in Kerala stood at a whopping Rs 200.45 billion till September 2000.

Though the high NRI deposit is the main lifeline of the state, the money has never been channeled to productive use for setting up of industries and technology companies in Kerala.

Therefore, the international conference will attempt to convince the non-resident Keralites to invest their money in sectors like tourism, industry and information technology, infrastructure, education and healthcare, the key areas that the Antony government is planning to revive.

Hassan said more than 800 non-resident Indians have already registered for the conference, titled Samavayam 2001, which will be sponsored by the state's public sector undertakings.

The conference would also focus on the welfare issues of non-resident Keralites. The minister disclosed that the government plans to launch a Welfare and Venture Action Plan for the non-resident Keralites community.

Industry Minister P K Kuhalikutty said that the global investors meet to be held in November will showcase the investment opportunities that exist in Kerala.

As a precursor to the meet, the government has prepared a draft Infrastructure Development Bill to make effective laws to deal with issues which inhibit the flow of private investments into the state.

"Our focus areas to attract investment are information technology, tourism, biotechnology and ayurveda. We are also preparing a labour policy to ensure that no private business is riddled with labour problems in the state," Kunhalikutty told rediff.com.

The minister conceded that Kerala's economy is in a bad shape and it could be revived only by attracting huge private investments into the state.

The United Democratic Front government has also set up a committee for investment promotion to set the pace for the industrial development in the state. The committee is headed by UDF convenor and Chief Minister Antony's close aide Oomen Chandy.

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