Maharashtra pitches for Chinese Industrial Park

Beijing: Maharashtra on Friday made a strong pitch, competing with half a dozen states, for the proposed Chinese Industrial Park in India.

A delegation from Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) led by Sunil Porwal, Principal Secretary, Ministry of Textiles invited top Chinese business houses to invest in the state offering a variety of incentives for foreign investments in different sectors, including the proposed park.

Vice President of China Chamber of Commerce for import and export of machinery and electronic products Wang Xusheng and officials of 60 Chinese business firms attended the interaction by Indian Ambassador to China, Ashok K Kantha. Maharashtra joined half a dozen other states to woo Chinese investments to India which for the past few years stagnated around USD 900 million.

Expectations among the Indian officials are high as top Chinese leaders are promising to step up investments to compensate huge trade deficit which now averaged around USD 35 billion a year in the last three years. Recently a delegation from Haryana had made a similar presentation to get Chinese Industrial Park with offers of huge land area.

A Chinese delegation earlier had visited Haryana and Noida in Uttar Pradesh to see the facilities and a decision was expected after the new government is formed in India. In his presentation today, Bhushan Gagrani, CEO of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation said his state was one of the highest recipients of FDI amounting to USD 65.345 billion so far.

Maharashtra also secured nearly half of the USD 900 million Chinese investment in India as Chinese automobile firm, Foton has invested in the state.

Its operations were expected to begin later this year.

"Already Japan and South Korea have opted to set up their industrial parks in Maharashtra," Gagrani said and outlined incentives for Chinese investors.

"Land acquisition is not a problem as his corporation has already acquired enough land for the new projects," he said. At the event, Trade Counsellor at the Indian Embassy here, Namgya Khampa outlined the wider investment opportunities for Chinese and foreign firms investing in India.