Kolkata: Ahead of the third edition of Make in Odisha (MIO) Conclave, the Handlooms, Textiles & Handicrafts Department held a roadshow here to attract investors in the textile sector.
Inaugurating the event, Minister Rita Sahu said, “While the metal sector has been an inherent strength of Odisha owing to our natural resource advantage, the Government of Odisha has taken proactive measures to broad base the industrial ecosystem in the state.”
Some of these measures include the identification of priority and focus sectors, development of sectoral policies, development of sectoral industrial parks and infrastructure etc. This is the result of the visionary leadership and pro-industry approach of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in enabling Odisha to become a major industrial hub in India, Smt.Sahu said.
She said textiles is one such focus sector where Odisha hopes to achieve exponential growth in the coming years.
Smt.Sahu also spoke about the State Government developing a Petroleum, Chemical, and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) in Paradeep with IOCL as the anchor tenant.
“Odisha is surely developing as a key investment destination in the chemicals and petrochemicals sector, and I would urge investors in the technical textile sector to come to Odisha and explore our latest offerings in this geography,” she appealed to the investors.
She further said that the Government is developing a technical textile park in association with Indian Oil with a state-of-the- art facility and best-in-class facilitation at Bhadrak, which is close to Kolkata and West Bengal in general.
The Minister urged investors in the apparel and textile sector to come to Odisha and check the ecosystem and the investor friendly policy support for potential investors.
Handlooms, Textiles & Handicrafts Secretary Shubha Sarma extended an invite to all present to visit Odisha and attend the Make in Odisha Conclave 22 to witness first-hand what Odisha has to offer.
She said that “Our Government understands that to attract investors we need to build a conducive business ecosystem. While progressive policies are certainly a part of it, we also need to build infrastructure and improve the ease of doing business. And we have done that.”
Smt.Sarma said it is interesting that several decades ago, Odisha had a large number of cooperatives in the spinning, power loom and textile mills space which were supported and promoted by the Government. Most of them were closed down, and learning from that experience, the Government of Odisha is looking to create enabling conditions and leave it to professionals to do the actual business, she added.
The Secretary reiterated that while Odisha has always been known for its magnificent handloom industry, the Government is now firmly focusing on technical textiles as well.
She spoke about the proposed Mega Textile Park at Gopalpur in a 1000 acres land parcel with all international standard common facilities for the units in the park under PM MITRA scheme of Government of India.
Textiles and Handlooms Director Susanta Kumar Dash said that the state has built sectoral industrial parks like technical textile park, mega textile parks etc. and investment regions with plug-and-play facilities and best- in-class infrastructure, simplified processes and instituted one of the best single window systems for investor facilitation, Go-Swift.
Shri Dash said that the recently, Odisha Government started World Skills Centre in partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Institute of Technical Education Services (ITEES), Singapore is India’s first and one-of-its-kind skill premier institutes to impart advanced skills and create globally employable youth in the State.
While the Roadshow was attended by more than 150 delegates, representatives of 15 textile and apparel industries had a one-to- one meeting with the senior government delegation from the HT&H Department, Government of Odisha.
