BackVibrant Gujarat: Investors pledge Rs25 trillion
Vibrant Gujarat sees over 21,000 MoUs, but conversion rate to actual investment remains to be seen
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Gandhinagar: Investors signed memoranda of understanding (MoU), or in-principle agreements, pledging to invest as much ₹ 25 trillion in Gujarat at the seventh edition of the Vibrant Gujarat global summit, a biennial business event that ended on Monday.
Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel said that over 21,000 MoUs and 1,225 strategic partnerships were signed at the event in Gandhinagar.
Patel said that this year’s edition of the event, a brainchild of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was the chief minister of Gujarat, had given the confidence to investors that the atmosphere for doing business in India would be similar to their experience in Gujarat.
Patel said Vibrant Gujarat, since its inception in 2003, had emerged as a “Davos-in-Action".
To be sure, the amounts mentioned in the MoUs are pledges that do not always get translated into investments on the ground.
MoUs to invest an aggregate ₹ 42 trillion were signed in the summits up to 2011, but the conversion rate to actual investment remained under 10%.
Sharing the dais with chief minister Patel at the closing session were Tata group chairman Cyrus Mistry, Adani group chairman Gautam Adani, and Yes Bank Ltd’s Rana Kapoor.
Mistry said the Tata group had a long association with the state, where it started a chemical factory in 1939.
It now has substantial investments in the state, including a car factory in Sanand and a power project in Mundra, he added.
Adani noted that the Adani group had signed an agreement with US-based SunEdison to set up the world’s largest integrated solar manufacturing facility in the state at an investment of ₹ 25,000 crore, another with Australia’s Woodside Energy on the sourcing of natural gas, and a third with the Port of Rotterdam to identify port-based industries to invest in Mundra.
The group will invest ₹ 20,000 crore to add 100 million tonnes per annum of capacity at its ports in Gujarat
Earlier in the day, the state government and MasterCard signed an MOU for strategic cooperation to accelerate the adoption of electronic payments processes involving government, businesses, and the travel and tourism industry.
The agreement aims to improve access to money and create improved transparency, efficiency and speed in payments that will benefit consumers, small businesses and craftsmen, as well as the state and municipal departments.
The summit saw 25,000 delegates from India and over 100 other countries. As many as eight nations are partner countries.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh, who was the chief guest at the closing session, said the event has contributed to the transformation of Gujarat into a global business hub.
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