The Investment Promotion Board (IPB) which was formed nearly four years ago has shown progress by completing 46 projects out of the nearly 170 approved proposals. These 46 projects entail an investment of Rs 1317 crore helping generate more employment in the State. However, the speed of clearing the projects did get a hit by the absence of its chairman, Manohar Parrikar. Now that Mr Parrikar is back, more projects are expected to be cleared sooner.
In fact, 150 (20 projects came in later) projects were approved by the earlier Laxmikant Parsekar government of which 10 projects were blacklisted by the Parrikar government in the review meeting of June 2017 because of ‘non-compliance’ by investor .
Subsequently, in December, 2017, 15 projects were dropped as it was not adhering to CRZ guidelines. Hence, about 125 projects which were approved and were under discussion stage, 46 have been completed. Out of these 46 completed projects, 17 are new, and rest of them have mainly expanded their capacity. “About 40 per cent of the projects have been completed and the investment has been realised by now. Hence, in nearly three years, 40 per cent realisation is there on ground. This also shows that investment climate in the State is quite robust,” said a spokesperson of the IPB.
The projects largely are of two major types. One being from the manufacturing sector, while the other, is basically from the hospitality industry, which includes hotels and resorts. In the manufacturing industry, majority of them are from the pharma sector. In fact, Goa caters to at least 11 per cent of India’s pharmaceutical production. With the IPB getting the status of a single window, the speed with which work can go ahead is likely to improve further.
Many of the blue-chip pharmaceutical global companies in Goa, which include Pfizer, Glenmark , Cipla, Unichem etc have gone in for major expansion which includes, new machinery, space etc, which means new jobs are being created. Even a new five-star hotel like Le Meridian has been completed in Calangute. However, the tracking of newly created jobs is done by the Labour Department and IPB at the moment does not have the figure.
The new projects have either taken sheds on lease rent at industrial estates and some of them have been allotted land by the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) based on IPB’s recommendation. In fact, IDC as per their regulation has kept aside 40% of their land for IPB to recommend for allotment of land.
The spokesperson of IPB said, “the recent trend is that many companies which are coming to Goa are related to electronics. We have Bosh, Siemens, Comscope, IFB etc already there in Goa. In fact their competitors are also willing to come to Goa to set up in the State. The ESDM park which is being established at Tuem, will further help this growing trend.”
The main reason for the companies coming to Goa is either to service the western zone. Also, the link to Goa Shipyard Ltd and other logistics hubs, which include the upcoming Mopa airport and its logistic hubs are attracting the newcomers. Apart from the electronic companies, the other sectors which have shown interest for Goa as a destination are pharmaceuticals, hospitality, defence production, ship building, food processing etc.
Herald also spoke to the member of IPB and President of the Goa State Industries Association, Rajkumar Kamat, who said, “Earlier the projects were cleared by how members felt. However, now we have a very objective analysis through a matrix which the consultant company KPMG does. The process is transparent and it is happening in a much more professional manner. In fact IPB has laid stress on two major things – employment and environment protection. So whatever is being cleared now are the projects which are worth for Goa from both employment and environment perspective.”
Yatin Kakodkar, member of IPB said, “For the period until February 2018, the IPB team headed and directed by its chairman and chief minister, Mr Parrikar reviewed these 46 projects and carefully screened and evaluated its suitability and feasibility of these projects before clearing it. Lot of care and attention were given before clearing these projects.”
