Punjab is offering the best ecosystem which includes single window clearance system, cheapest power, skilled talent and infrastructure to welcome the industry in the state, which will result in generation of more job opportunities for the youth, Capt. Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister, Punjab said. The Chief Minister was addressing to the group of industry leaders during the Chandigarh University Industry Meet through video conferencing. The theme of the virtual meet was ‘Revival of Economy in the post-COVID-19 scenario.’ Industry leaders showed great interest in investing in Punjab and take leverage of the Ease of Doing Business and Industry-friendly environment of the state during the Meet.
The Chief Minister assured the industry to work in the direction of meeting the expectations of the corporate world and look into the resolutions of the problems if any.
Referring to some of the measures adopted by Government of Punjab to bring the economy back on track, Singh said, “The government has already appointed a high-level committee under economist Montek Singh Ahluwalia to develop a medium to long-term recovery strategy for the state from the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown.”
Addressing the meet, Capt. Amarinder Singh said, “There was a time when India faced food shortage but our farmers stood up to the challenge and within four years, through Green Revolution, Punjab richly contributed in making our country self-sufficient in foodgrains. Now it is the turn to bring technology revolution and once again Punjab will become the front-runner in this.” On the front of agriculture, Punjab CM said, “Punjab is doing great in the terms of crop-diversification as we have shifted from paddy to Basmati which has great export opportunity. In addition we have increased the area under cotton production by 105 lakh acres this year and we are trying to move Punjab out to paddy and wheat belt.”
“With big corporate houses setting-up their units in Mohali, the city is emerging as the next education and technology hub of the region and this will largely benefit the youth of Punjab as new job opportunities will be generated for them,” said the Chief Minister. “Government is working to invite corporate houses to Punjab and has started Invest Punjab programme three years ago in 2017 and today the success of the programme can be checked on ground with more Rs. 65,000 crore worth of investment has already been done in the state with top notch companies setting-up their units,” Amarinder Singh further added. “Government is pushing industrial growth in the state with 3,100 acres of 4 Industrial Parks coming up in Punjab at Bathinda, Sangrur, Rajpura, Hoshiarpur which will work as integrated manufacturing clusters in different domains.”
“It is remarkable that due to concussive and business friendly environment of Punjab, top industry has shown interest in coming to the state and Chandigarh University will act as bridge between Government and Industry to felicitate the establishment of new industry in the state,” said Satnam Singh Sandhu, Chancellor, Chandigarh University. “The University has the best of talent, world class infrastructure, research and incubation facilities which we have offered to the Industry and we will surely make Punjab the next Knowledge and Industry hub of the region,” added Sandhu.
Speaking on the occasion, Sanjeev Mehta, Chairman & MD, Hindustan Unilever offered to start “Women Empowerment Programme-Shakti” in Punjab which will generate employment for women of the state. He also advocated to digitise the fair price shops in the state which will help the government in plugging the loopholes in the system thus ensuring the subsided food reaching the right section of people.
Sameer Wadhawan, Senior Vice-President & Head HR, Samsung Electronics advised the government to set-up single window system for MSME sector and also to attract investment in agro-farm industry as Punjab is one of the largest producer of foodgrains in India.
