Envoy keen on Chinese investment in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: Lauding Odisha for being a fast developing State, Chinese Ambassador to India Zhang Yan has assured that sizeable Chinese investments will be made in the State in different sectors.The envoy called on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the Secretariat earlier this week as the head of a high-level Chinese delegation and held discussions with him on a variety of subjects. This was the first visit to the State by Yan, a senior diplomat working as the Ambassador in India since 2007.Later at a seminar on ‘Tourism potential between China and India with special reference to Odisha’, Yan told mediapersons: “Odisha will hereafter be the focal point for Chinese investors. More Chinese leaders and delegations will visit the city in future. The State is emerging as a hub of industries and we would propose in invest in sectors of power, information technology, research and development.”He said China’s core interest in Odisha would be in areas of education, tourism and culture. “Odisha has a great tourism potential and we have taken note of that. Priority would be laid on developing cultural ties between the State and China and people to people exchanges,” he said. Yan informed that as a part of people to people exchanges between the State and China, mayors of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur had participated in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Friendship Cities and Local Governments Cooperation Forum conclave in China on December 2.Speaking on the occasion, MP Pyarimohan Mohapatra said as far as tourism is concerned, Odisha’s anthropological, tribal and heritage tourism and the Chilika Lake can be of great interest for the Chinese tourists apart from the Buddhist tourism. The Chinese Ambassador left the State on Saturday after holding meetings with local businessmen.