'Vibrant Gujarat' is more talk than substance: Assocham

By ENN, Ahmedabad: The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) has refuted the success claims of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor's Summit held earlier this year, stating that only 34.2 per cent of the total investments announced during the summit are under implementation now.

While the state government has claimed a 'success rate' of 69 per cent, only 34.2 per cent of the total investments announced during the summit are under implementation, while the rest remain at the announcement stage, according to an Assocham study.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and his government have been basking in the 'success' of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor's Summit held earlier this year just because several of India's biggest industrialists praised Modi's leadership.

According to the Assocham report submitted to the government on Thursday, only 24 projects worth Rs6,217 crore were completed in the second quarter of 2009-10. This accounts for a mere 0.5 per cent of the announced investments.

Stressing the need to speed up work on projects that are yet to materialise, Assocham president Swati Piramal said there is a need to put a single window clearance system in place to help timely execution of investment projects to the tune of Rs12,00,000 crore which have been announced.

A paper titled 'Sustaining the growth momentum in Gujarat', which was released in Ahmedabad by Assocham, says that the investment projects numbering 1,402 and worth around Rs11,41,000 crore have been announced for Gujarat up to September 2009. Of this, 42.5 per cent share has gone to power sector, while the manufacturing sector has attracted 24.8 per cent, followed by 18.8 per cent by service sector.

Piramal, however, pointed out that the Gujarat administration has been successful in propelling its economy into a high growth trajectory. An appropriate policy framework in put in place and suitably amended from time to time for this purpose.

According to Assocham, Gujarat has identified six industrial nodes along the 565 km stretch of the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor (DMIC). This presents a major opportunity as well as a challenge for the state. "While the opportunity is in the form of leveraging these projects to benefit the state, the challenge lies in the form of addressing the equity concerns associated with this project," the officials said.

Assocham has also suggested the state level development finance institutes like the erstwhile state industrial development corporations to be revived for the benefit of SMEs.