Compete with China, Modi tells Gujarat’s ceramic industry
By IANSTuesday, September 21, 2010
GANDHINAGAR - Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday hoped that the state’s ceramic industry will reinvent itself to provide strong competition to China in the global market.
He was speaking after inaugurating a German multinational company Duravit’s first ceramic sanitaryware manufacturing plant in India near Tarapur in central Gujarat.
The German firm had signed a MoU during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit (VGGIS) in 2007 to set up the plant with an investment of Rs.70 crore, but defied the global recessionary trend to set up the modern plant.
Spread over 1.70 lakh square metre, the Rs.120-crore facility will produce about five lakh units of sanitaryware annually.
Modi said the Gujarat’s ceramic industry was traditionally situated near the Morbi industrial belt in the Saurashtra region, but it was laudable that the German sanitaryware major set up this plant in Anand district.
He wished the state’s ceramic industry would now compete with China in global market.
He suggested that Duravit start a hockey academy in Gujarat in keeping with its reputation in corporate social responsibility and promoting the game.
The German company’s chief executive Franz Kook, chairman Gregor Greneirt and managing director Asutosh Shah gave details of the plant and the project.
