Vibrant Gujarat now international platform for investments: Modi

GANDHINAGAR - The Global Investors summit in Gujarat has now metamorphosed into an international platform to facilitate investment alliances for participating countries, states and investors and has catapulted Gujarat into a global business hub, Chief Minister Narendra Modi said Monday.

Speaking at the inauguration of the mega exhibition put up as part of the Vibrant Gujarat-2011, Modi said that the bi-annual event, first initiated in 2003, has come a long way since then.

“We started out with garnering investment for our state from business and industry countrywide and abroad but have moved on in true national spirit to evolve into a platform which is today encouraging all Indian states as well as developing and developed countries to use our soil and expertise for their growth,” he added.

Modi said that the fifth meet, now getting underway, has Japan and Canada as country partners and units from 45 countries besides 19 Indian states participating this time.

“The time has now come for Indian states to come together and become engines of growth to take the country to the forefront globally. Gujarat is showing the way,” he added.

The mega exhibition is spread over 33,000 square metres at the Mahatma Mandir here, an edifice put together in a record time of just about six months at a cost of over Rs.100 crores.

It has more than 300 stalls representing various sectors. There is an arts village with 33 stalls wherein product-making demonstrations will be done by artisans. The other attractions are glimpses of the state-of-the-art technology in transportation including a solar plane and metro coach, a 60 ft high and 600 ft long design replica of the Mahatma Mandir project under construction, a giant ‘Charkha’ gate and two giant-sized windmills (100 feet high) which are generating power.