Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley said that Jharkhand which was merely growing at per cent more than the national average had the potential to grow by 4-5 per cent.
Addressing the Momentum Jharkhand Global Investors Summit at the Khelgaon here he said that to “achieve that growth rate there was a need to have an industry-friendly government which has clear cut policies and has the capabilities to get rid of corruption and red-tapism and also is capable of identifying the areas of investment.”
He said that the central government was firmly behind Jharkhand and would be investing heavily in all the government sponsored schemes. He called on to foster such a partnership where the industries would act as a catalyst between the union government and the state government so that the true investment potential of the states like Jharkhand can be harnessed.
Heaping praise on Chief Minister Raghubar Das he said that his speech displayed the determination of him to alter the course of the history of Jharkhand. He said the Tata’s chose more than 100 years ago to set up their steel plant here, moreover, Jamshedpur was the first planned city to develop in India and the model was later replicated by Chandigarh, Gandhinagar and New Raipur. “Even when India won the first Olympic gold in 1928 in hockey it was a son from Jharkhand who collected the gold medal as the captain of the team,” Jaitley said.
However he said that investment trickled in the state mainly on account of its mineral reserves but the full potential could not be utilised as mainly on account of flawed economic policies of the previous governments. He also pointed out that earlier winning elections via some kind of social engineering was the prime focus rather than the politics of development.
The Union Finance Minister said that people had hoped that creation of a separate state would allow Jharkhand to grow faster but due to political instability and corruption the state failed to achieve the desired results. ” Moreover the industrialists do not want to invest in troubled waters,” he said adding that Jharkhand was now maturing in its politics and policy making.
He said that such a stable government was in power in Jharkhand which has accorded prime objective to economic development and there was a huge potential for the industrialists to get returns on their investments. Mr Jaitely said that Jharkhand can pride itself as a manufacturing state where the contribution of the industrial sector was more than that of the services sector, therefore the services sector offer ample scope for development.
Mr Jaitley said that traditionally the eastern states of the country have seen less development compared to the western region and since the area was blessed with natural and mineral resources, therefore, there was a great potential to grow.
Among those present also included Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das, Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Venkaiyah Niadu, Piyush Goyal, Smriti Irani, Sudrashan Bhagat and Jayant Sinha. Heavyweights of India Inc including Ratan Tata, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Sashi Ruia, Naveen Jindal, Rajesh Adani and Anil Aggarwal also graced the occasion.
The event also witnessed participation from 26 countries out of which Japan, Mangolia, Tunisia and Czech Republic were present as partner countries and were represented by their ambassadors.
