The State government is still slumbering in lethargy and after Supersonic having moved out of Goa, it has been the turn of Sunburn, the other Electronic Dance Music (EDM) festival that had become almost synonymous with Goa after the State had hosted it for nine years, to bid adieu. The only festival that hasn’t moved out of Goa is the International Film Festival that has now made the State its permanent home.
Goa has been hosting the IFFI since 2004, but there has been little growth in the festival. Perhaps the reason it stays on in the State is that it is a government organised programme and hence doesn’t feel the need to improve from the previous year. Otherwise, that too would have looked for a permanent home elsewhere. No private entity would have been content to wait indefinitely for the promised infrastructure in the form of a state-of-the-art convention centre and more multiplexes to screen festival movies to take shape. IFFI is still being held in the Kala Academy that was refurbished in 2004 and the same multiplex that was hurriedly built the same year for the first IFFI. Would a private festival be satisfied with no tangible growth?
Development and progress move in Goa, to use a cliché, at a snail’s pace, and at times even slower. The Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority that was finally constituted and was to meet and decide whether to clear the Shack Policy, postponed its meeting by a day, even as shack owners and the entire tourism industry waited for its decision on the policy. It further decided to visit the beaches before taking a decision so the policy still remains without being cleared. On the other hand the Investment Promotion Board has no hesitation in clearing projects that require zoning changes from orchard or agriculture to commercial or industrial. The State has neither achieved any balance in its policies and thinking nor is it looking to do so in the future.
Hardly surprising, therefore, that according to the World Bank Ease of Doing Business report for 2016, Goa has slipped to 21st spot from the 19th it had stood at last year. ASSOCHAM had recently released its report stating that the growth rate in investments in Goa has fallen, now the World Bank confirms that the environment for business in Goa is not the best and is in fact getting worse. While that is a cause for concern, in awards presented by a National magazine, Goa was adjudged in the second place in the small State category where the economy was concerned.
So just where is the State headed? Is it time that the State take corrective measures based on the World Bank report or is it time for it to celebrate the award from a magazine? It, unquestionably, has to be the former.
The ambivalent attitude that the government in Goa has been taking regarding issues associated with the economy, industry and other sectors needs to be altered. Before taking up investment proposals from the industry, the State has to define what sectors it wants to promote in Goa, so that investors are aware what industry is welcome in the State. Given that land is a scarce asset in Goa, the government should turn its back to land intensive industry and look at options that would require less land, yet create more employment suitable to the workforce in the State. It is time to speed up the decision making process and have in place systems that will ease the way of doing business in Goa.
