Corporate honchos pledge to invest in Assam

GUWAHATI - Leaders of corporate India Tuesday pledged to invest in Assam and explore opportunities for business in agriculture, tourism and rural infrastructure and setting up of power plants, IT parks and bio-diesel facilities.

“I would say my visit to Assam is a real eye opener. The potentials here are enormous. We are keen to aggresively participate in the agro-industry sector, mainly the tea industry, by adding value to the existing products,” Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons Ltd, told journalists here.

Tata also laid the foundation stone of a Rs. 250-crore five-star Taj Hotel in the city, the first such facility in the northeast.

The business tycoons were taking part in the first meeting of the newly floated Assam Investment Advisory Board here. It was aimed at evaluating and approving an investment strategy, facilitating investment and creating a framework for monitoring progress on agreed objectives.

The day-long meeting was chaired by chief minister Tarun Gogoi. It was attended among others by B. M. Khaitan, Chairman Eveready Industries, Rakesh Mittal, Vice Chairman of the Bharti Group, V.N. Dhoot, Chairman of Videocon Group, Naina Lal Kidwai, CEO of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation India, O.P. Bhatt, Chairman, State Bank of India.

“We are extremely happy with the response from India’s top most business giants and hope this would go a long way in boosting the region’s economy,” Gogoi said.

Industry Minister Pradyut Bordoloi said the government has set a target of attracting investment of Rs 100,000 crore over the next five years.

“We have suggested the idea of creating a corpus so that the fund could be used for various strategies to attract investments, besides developing skills. Assam has a tremendous investment potentials and the time is now to channelise the resources available,” R.K. Krishna Kumar, Director, Tata Sons, said.

M.S. Banga, president, Unilever (Foods, Home & Personal Care), said: “We are attracted towards Assam and that is why we all are here for this meeting. Nothing is without challenge, but the experience has been positive with opportunities waiting to be explored”.

Mittal said his company was keen to invest in the agriculture sector.