UP to offer industrial townships to firms exiting China and coming to state

Industrial development minister Satish Mahana on Thursday said the state was working on a multi-pronged strategy to turn the Covid-19 adversity into an opportunity to boost industrial growth.

Industrial development minister Satish Mahana on Thursday said the state was working on a multi-pronged strategy to turn the Covid-19 adversity into an opportunity to boost industrial growth.

Industrial development minister Satish Mahana

“To attract foreign companies looking to shift their manufacturing base from China to India, more specifically to Uttar Pradesh, the UP government will offer them their own industrial townships where their people will live with all the facilities,” said Mahana.

He said that the state government has identified 100 to 300 acres of land in different parts of the state for such industrial townships.

“For instance, if Japan wishes, it can have a township—a Japan away from Japan--where their people can have residential colonies, complexes and schools etc,” Mahana said to reporters here.

He was referring to the UP government’s preparations for aiding Japanese, South Korean and US companies, which wish to shift their manufacturing base from China and come to UP.

Mahana said his department was doing meticulous homework and it had prepared a note on all the things that India imports from China--from electrical machinery, nuclear reactors, builders, to man-made filament, footwear and fabrics etc.

“From April 2019 to January 2020, India imported different categories of goods worth US $57.93 billion. Now, the country is looking to make ‘local’ the motto as PM Modi has said and we are trying to bring as much as possible of this to UP,” said Mahana.

“UP’s industrial revival is returning on track and will soon speed up,” he said.

Mahana said that after making a helpdesk for US, Japanese and South Korean companies, the state government would tell them that 150-acre land is available near Auraiyya and 100 acres in the Kanpur-Unnao industrial area.

UP TOO MULLING ‘SWADESHI’ ONLY

Mahana said after the union home ministry’s announcement that the para-military forces’ canteens would now sell only ‘swadeshi’ goods to the staff, his department would ask various departments concerned in UP to have only India brands and no foreign multi-national brands at the UP government’s canteens.

‘UP WAS FIRST’

The minister said that the state government was the first to take welfare decisions related to migrants, ration distribution, sustenance allowances when the Covid-19 lockdown came into force.

And now, when PM Modi had talked about ‘life and livelihood both’, the UP government will take the lead in industrial revival, he said.

“Our strategy for industrial revival and growth is three-pronged. One, to revive and revitalise the existing industries. Two, to give an impetus to industries in the pipeline (such as for those MoUs were signed at global investors’ summit and groundbreaking ceremony). A total of 370 companies, who had signed MoUs have done bhumi-pujan, while 150 had started commercial production. Third to have new companies, whether Indian or foreign, come to UP.”

INFRA, AGRI BASE, WATER RESOURCES

The minister said UP had good infrastructure, agricultural base, and good surface and underground water resources for industries.

He talked about the new steps that the state government took for promoting logistics parks and warehousing in UP.

“We are now offering land to them at only 1.5 times of the industrial rates instead of very high commercial rates. It’s an irresistible offer,” he said.

CAPITAL INVESTMENT-BASED INCENTIVES

Mahana said concessions that the state government would offer to new industries/investments might be capital investment-based instead of GST based.

“Quite often, the concessions/incentives based on GST rates lead to confusion and anomalies because different kinds of industries have different GST rates. So instead, the concessions/incentive in UP might become based on the total capital invested.”