''Punjab to seek $30 billion investment in 2020, buoyed by this year''s success''

Singapore, March 26 

Punjab is targeting a USD 30 billion investment for its industrialisation programme next year, building on its success of having already tapped USD 5.6 billion to date, a state official has said.

Touching on the 2020 investment target and confident of achieving USD10 billion target for this year, BS Kohli, Advisor to Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion, said: "We don't talk about MoUs at all. As a government, we are committed to only announce projects which have been signed and investment is on the ground."

The USD 5.6 billion has been raised over the last 23 months, a large part of which came from the United Arab Emirates-Punjab conference held recently.

Nine Emirate companies, as foreign investors, have committed to projects in Punjab with DP World getting into the planned Pathankot Logistics Hub.

Kohli said the Punjab government expects to host a second Singapore-Punjab conference on one-to-one basis with investors along with project presentations in June this year.

The third Germany-Punjab conference is also being planned for the year, as Punjab moves on to add industries to its strong agriculture sector and create jobs for its youths, said Kohli.

"We are not competing with other Indian states for investments, we are running a different race," he said of the high yield concept of one-to-one or face-to-face conference with investors on country to country basis.

He conceded Punjab was late at the start up line for winning investors both local and foreign, but the pace was being accelerated.

"We need to work on changing our agriculture pattern into industry and value addition," he said on the sidelines of a conference 'Doing Business with Indian States: Opportunities and Way Forward' on Monday in Singapore.

"We need to create jobs for our youths as land holdings is becoming lesser and lesser," Kohli told some 180 business executives at the conference.

Meanwhile, Singapore's Asia Competitive Institute (ACI) is expected to renew an MoU with Punjab government to conduct a study on "Ease of Doing Business" in the state, its co-director Tan Khee Giap said on the sidelines of the conference.

Similarly, the ACI, which is part of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, is helping Uttarakhand on developing tourism sector and improving the small and medium enterprises.

Work has started in Uttarakhand under the MoU signed on last month, said Tan who is also chairman of the Singapore National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation.

Andhra Pradesh and Delhi states also presented projects and investment opportunities at the one-day conference. — PTI