Karnataka chief minister Bommai leaves for World Economic Forum in Davos
‘I am confident of getting a good response for our efforts to attract investments to the state, said Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, before departing for Davos.
BENGALURU: Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday left for Davos in Switzerland to take part in the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) where he is scheduled to meet industry leaders and others to help attract investments for the southern state.
“I am set to meet many business honchos and captains of industry. Many of them have shown interest in investing in Karnataka. I am confident of getting a good response for our efforts to attract investments to the state,” Bommai said on Sunday before departing for Davos.
Bommai on Sunday said that the state attracted the highest share of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the last quarter.
“India has reported the highest foreign direct investment (FDI Inflow) to the tune of $83.57 billion for the financial year 2021-22. In the computer hardware and software sector, Karnataka bagged the highest share of the FDI inflow (53%) followed by Delhi & Maharastra (17% Each),” he said in a post on Twitter.
“I welcome all the Foreign investors to Karnataka and assure that we will provide the best of infrastructural facilities at the quickest possible time,” he added.
The state government has also scheduled its global investors meet (GIM) in November.
“This time the Global Investors’ Meet would not be confined to just singing of MoUs. All the initiatives would be taken to ensure setting up of the industries after signing of MoUs,” he said.
Karnataka, like its counterparts, has been trying to attract investments to generate more jobs and help improve the economy which is yet to fully recover from the Covid-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns.
Urban distress and lack of employment opportunities has led to an increase in demand for jobs under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) as the number of persons days in Karnataka has almost doubled from 8.58 crore in 2017-18 to 16.28 crore in 2021-22, data shows.
The number of people who have sought refuge in MNREGA too has nearly doubled in the last five years from 38.91 lakh persons taking up MNREGA jobs in 2017-18, the number has ballooned to 63.92 lakhs in 2021-22, HT reported on April 1.
However, Bommai and successive governments before him continued to prioritise attracting big-ticket investments while a sizeable section of small-scale industries face continued hardships.
According to a statement in the upper house of the state legislature in March by N Nagaraju (MTB), Karnataka’s minister for small scale industries, over 45,000 labourers, working in small scale units lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
“A total of 754 registered small-scale industries, including 562 industries in 2020 and 102 in 2021 have shut down,” he said. He added that over 92,000 jobs have been created across the state during the same time period.