Himachal Pradesh comprises of diverse terrain ranging from plains to mid hills and high mountains. This diversity endows the State with immense natural resources. Location and climate of Himachal Pradesh also ideally suits knowledge based activities. Thus, the Government is giving added priority for setting up of Information Technology industries and I.T. related activities. The infrastructure facilities in industrial areas are being improved to ensure availability of quality power and better communication facilities. Some areas where private sector participation could be fruitful are tourism and industrial infrastructure including housing, power generation, software technology parks and the like.
The State Government now intends to involve and drive the benefit of experience and investment capability of private sector, for exploiting the potentials of local resource based industry. To attract industrial investment, ‘Industry by Invitation’ has been the motto of the State Government and it is being proactively and assertively followed. With this objective, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has decided to pro-actively reach out to the investors to persuade them to invest in different sectors in the State. For this, the Chief Minister is leading a multi-disciplinary team, comprising of Industries Minister and senior secretary level officers of the State Government to reach out to the potential entrepreneurs in different parts of the country.
In the first phase, Investor’s Meet is being organized in close co-ordination with the Confederation of India Industries (CII) from 5th to 8th November. On 5th and 6th November Investor’s Meet would be held at Mumbai, on 7th November at Bangluru and on 8th November at Ahmedabad. The Chief Minister’s Office has sent more than 1400 personal invitations to the leading domestic and foreign investors to be part of this mega event.
In order to make Investor’s Meet more effective and successful, the delegation would act as a Mobile Single Window Clearance Authority, where maximum issues regarding investment in the State would be accorded approval on the spot. The delegation during the interaction with the representatives of the industrial houses would appraise them regarding various incentives being provided to the industrialists. The focus would be to acquaint the entrepreneurs regarding facilities and an attractive package of incentives being offered by the State Government to them and some other attractions offered by the state of Himachal Pradesh such as uninterrupted and reliable power supply, responsive administration, industrial peace, which they would hardly find anywhere in the country.
In the second phase, ‘Investor Meet‘ would be held at Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and New Delhi. The response from the industry has been positive as is evident from the queries being received from the members of the industry. During the meeting Chief Minister and Industries Minister would also have one to one discussions with the leading industrial houses and Chief Executive Officers of Indian and foreign companies.
The Government has already put in place a simplified procedure for the approval of medium/large scale industrial projects. In order to ensure expeditious clearances from the respective departments for the setting up of new unit, for each large/medium projects a Single Window Clearance and Monitoring Authority under the Chairmanship of the Chief Minister has been constituted to clear projects and ensure speedy clearances/ approval from various departments/ agencies. An ‘Investment Promotion Cell’ has been created in the Industries Department to drive new investments in the State. A combined intra-departmental application form has been made available to facilitate the entrepreneurs and time bound clearance is being giving within a period of 90 days.
The State is also providing other incentives, concessions and facilities related to local taxes, labour laws, land allotments in industrial areas and estates, incentives for exports, incentives for productivity, quality, setting up of testing and R & D centres, manpower development etc. The State is also offering concessions in Stamp duty payable by industry, and Floor Area Ratio norms for industry have been relaxed. One of the biggest advantages the State has is availability of quality power at one of the cheapest rates in the country. The State Government is also contemplating to freeze the power tariff for the industries for the next five years. The Government has also put in place a fast track and a simplified procedure for the transfer of land for industrial purposes.
The State Government is permitting transfer of private land for industrial /tourism/hydel purposes within a very short period. All these initiatives of the State Government are bound to make Himachal Pradesh a favorite destination for the entrepreneurs.
