TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Goa Chamber of industry, while underlining that manufacturing is the most important growth engine that “can sustain continued development of any economy” points out that in Goa the growth of manufacturing sector is stagnating at around 35% of the State GDP.
Surprisingly, for a state that boasts of being the top small state in the country and topping in various parameters, there have been no new and substantial investments seen in this sector in the last 5 to 7 years. Consequently, no new job opportunities were being created and educated Goan youth have to go out of state and the country to find jobs.
The investment policy which envisages creation of 50,000 jobs is due to be notified by end of March.
According to Industries minister Mahadev Naik, from 2012 till January 2014, only 9864 jobs were created in the Industrial sector, while 298 workers lost their jobs.
Also 23 industries closed down, forcing many to question how the government will achieve that employment figure given that in the past so many years it has not managed to move out from its lethargy and done previous little for industrialization even under the urgent incentive of closure of mining.
As of now the industrial policy which is in force was notified in 2003 and is still in force.
A case in point of the lethargy in the industrial scenario is the unutilised or underutilised plots in the industrial estates.
A task force was constituted by the government on August 24, 2010 to identify unutilised or under-utlised plots and based on the report show cause notices were issued to all allottees of plots.
However, as of February 2014, the government says that “as regards the unutilized/underutilised allotted plots, the Goa Industrial Development Corporation is taking measures to revive/repossess the same on a case to case basis. When asked whether the vacant plots have been reversed or yet to be reversed.
Surprisingly, when asked about the present status of the vacant plots the government says that those allottees who have requested some more time have been given an opportunity to commence construction within a period of 6 months and commence production within one year.
However, for industry, things have not changed much despite a lot of noise about development in the state and the GCCI even in this year’s pre budget presentation has said that still availability of suitable plots is an issue and that
“Though Government has put in place a Plot Allotment Policy, its implementation should be expedited.”
“Plot Transfer and Sub-leasing policy has also been announced but it should be implemented in the right earnest. Many transfer and sub-leasing applications are pending for over 24 months, holding up productive use of plots/sheds. All pending applications should be expeditiously cleared.”
It also wants the government to devise a scheme similar to NPV to attract fresh investments, scrap the high powered committee and a new Investment Promotion Board be set up with this Investment Promotion Board being a Single Window clearance agency which will deal with all processes and sanctions, raising questions about the commitment of this government to development and the efficiency of its administration even as it completes two years at the helm of affairs.
According to Industries minister Mahadev Naik, from 2012 till January 2014, only 9864 jobs were created in the Industrial sector, while 298 workers lost their jobs. Also 23 industries closed down
