Bhubaneshwar: Despite COVID-19 pandemic which triggered the largest global economic crisis, Odisha attracted record new investment proposals of Rs.4,54,175 crore just in four financial years of 2018-19 & 2021-22, according to the study on “Investment, growth & development in Odisha – a land of opportunities”.
The Study also found that the State was able to generate over one lakh job opportunities during the period through the investments.
The study, jointly conducted by the MSME Export Promotion Council and Confederation of Organic Food Producers & Marketing Agencies, was released here on Monday by MSME EPC Chief D S Rawat.
Dr Rawat said, during the four years period, Rs.1,26,529.53 crore investment projects were completed while many of the projects were in advanced states of completion.
The State has witnessed rapid transformation in the past decade in terms of industrialization and becoming ‘preferred destination for investors’ is successfully attracting the highest investment for the last few years resulting in a big boost to the all-round growth.
The study analysed the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s (CMIE) data related to new investment proposals, projects completed and revived and outstanding as well as under implementation projects.
During the pandemic period of 2020-21, which severely affected the entire world, the State attracted new investment proposals of Rs.112188.46 crore, completed the projects worth Rs.26,268.42 crore, revived the projects of Rs. 3344.10 crore, the Study says.
It was noted that the total outstanding investment projects were Rs.1643994.45 crore and projects worth Rs.884090.55 crore are under implementation, it said.
In 2021-22, the new investment projects of Rs.112329.04 crore were announced, of which projects worth Rs.21031.10 crore completed. The total outstanding projects were of Rs.1765831.77 crore while investment projects of Rs.927630.87 crore are in various stages of execution.
Export of all commodities, including petroleum & crude and non-petroleum products such as agriculture & allied, minerals, manufactured goods and other commodities has been significantly increasing in Odisha, the report said.
Dr Rawat said, the study found that the State has been at the forefront of the adoption of IT and experimenting with emerging technologies to drive and transform governance in the State to positively impact the lives of the citizens.
Due to the effective execution of the policy initiatives, the State has increasingly become the destination for modern technology companies in the eastern part of India.
All the major IT companies have a long presence in the state and, of late, international organizations are also moving in the State, he said.
Odisha offers huge potential to the food processing and organic farming sectors. While the food processing sector has been significantly contributing to reducing post-harvest losses and promoting horticulture and agri-based factories, organic farming has helped farmers to enhance their income for sustainable livelihood.
The study says, year after year, new farmers are becoming organic farmers and now the total area under certification process both cultivated and wild harvest in 2020-21 in Odisha has been 96306.88 hectares, the cultivated farm area during 2020-21, 92694.81 hectares, the organic area under wild collection during the same period 3612.07 hectares. The farm production in 2020-21 has been 131852.02 ha., organic production from wild areas 242.00 MT.
