Investors’ summit from Oct 12

Our Correspondent

Jammu, August 13

A week after the Centre scrapped the state’s special status, the Jammu and Kashmir Government on Tuesday announced to organise a three-day-long “Global Investors’ Summit-2019” from October 12 in Srinagar and Jammu.

The government refused to draw any link between the scrapping of Article 370 and the upcoming global investor summit, saying “the event was planned much before the abrogation of Article 370”.

“The state government has decided to hold the first-ever J&K investors’ summit to attract investments in various sectors of the economy of the state and to showcase J&K as a favourable investment destination,” Navin K. Choudhary, Principal Secretary, Industry & Commerce and Tourism Department, told reporters here this evening.

Choudhary said the inaugural session of the summit would be held at the SKICC, Srinagar, on October 12, while the valedictory ceremony would be held at Jammu University on October 14.

“Both inaugural as well as valedictory ceremonies are likely to be attended by many dignitaries, besides senior ministers of the Union Government, various Secretaries to the Government of India, representatives of other state governments as well as top industrialists and business groups of the country. We have extended invitation to about 2,000 dignitaries,” the Principal Secretary said.

“We are also going to hold road shows before the event in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and a mega road show would be held in New Delhi. Similarly, road shows would be held in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Netherlands and Malaysia,” he added.

Choudhary said the J&K Trade Promotion Organisation (JKTPO) would be the organising agency of the state government for holding the investors’ summit and around 2,000 dignitaries of the industry and trade would be sent invitation and a good percentage of them were expected to attend the summit.

“The government would also try to reach an understanding with respect to as many investments by various groups as possible. Many prominent business groups have already shown keen interest and willingness for participation and making investment in the state,” he said. The summit will also provide opportunity for Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Government (B2G) meetings, which will result in various investment tie-ups.

Similarly, exhibitions would be held to showcase the opportunities which the state would provide along with the PPP projects to investors, he added.

When asked about the removal of Article 370 and investment expected, the Principal Secretary said, “I think both have no connection, we had planned the event before the abrogation of Article 370.”