Injust four years, over Rs. 70,000 crore worth of investment has been added, withmore than 10 global investors choosing to place their confidence in Punjab. TheCovid crisis failed to dampen investor confidence, and Rs 5274 crore ofinvestment came in between April 1 to December 21, 2020, including two marqueeinvestors –M/s Air Liquide (HQ France; Industrial Gases; Rajpura), M/sCentrient Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (HQ USA, SBS Nagar).
Morethan 10 global investors have chosen to put their trust and money in Punjab’sgrowth story since 2017, even as domestic industries and business houses havecontinued to expand their frontiers to further power the state’s quest tobecome one of India’s most attractive destinations of investment and growth.
Accordingto CEO Invest Punjab, Rajat Aggarwal, led by the strategic interventions of theinvestment promotion agency that got a facelift under Chief Minister CaptainAmarinder Singh’s visionary roadmap for growth soon after his government tookover, the state’s investment story has witnessed a dramatic transformation. Astory that has now been validated by Invest Punjab’s ranking as one of the `TopPerformers’ among 20 State Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) with an overallscore of 100%.
Aggarwalsaid this remarkable feat has been underscored by the recently concluded StateIPA ratings report, released by Invest India, under the directive of Departmentfor Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT), in collaboration withthe World Bank Group. The assessment was meant to measure the preparedness ofthe Indian State IPAs to attract and facilitate investment projects and provideaftercare to investors, Invest Punjab said in a statement. Incidentally, apartfrom `Top Performers’, there were four other ratings categories - `AspiringLeaders’, `Promising Developers’ and `Emerging Potentials’ – across which thestates were assessed.
Hesaid Invest Punjab, under Captain Amarinder Singh’s leadership as theminister-in-charge of the Department of Investment Promotion, has been ununmatched success story for the state is manifest in its excellent investmentrecord of the last around 4 years. Investments have poured in from countries asdiverse as USA, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, France, Germany, UK, UAE, NewZealand, Spain, while many existing Punjab based industries decided to expandtheir operations during this time.
Asthe ratings report put it: “We congratulate Invest Punjab for taking remarkablemeasures that have resulted in it becoming one of the leading investmentpromotion agencies in India. We commend the far-sightedness of the State IPAand its leadership for taking the steps to prove its relevance in thiscompetitive landscape. Invest Punjab has scored 100% in each of the eightpillars.”
InvestPunjab, over the past few years, has undertaken many institutional, systemicand technological reforms to ensure ease of business throughout the investmentlifecycle of the investor. The agency’s aggressive strategic interventions haveenabled it to earn 100% in all the eight pillars of the State IPA rankingsreport released by Invest India, Aggarwal said.
Asper the report, the Top performers are the IPAs that are most prepared forattracting and retaining investors and perform well across many or all theeight Pillars – Mandate and Organization, Strategy and Marketing, TargetingInvestors, Winning Investment Projects, Facilitating Investments, Aftercare,Systems and Infrastructure, Website. They demonstrate multiple aspects ofinternationally recognised good practices – an ethos that the Captain Amarinderled government has actively promoted through its focus on ethics, transparency,and promoting ease of doing business.
TheState IPA rankings report praised Invest Punjab’s vision for growth bymentioning that, “It is noteworthy that Invest Punjab not only has awell-defined strategy in place but also a well-rounded approach to identifyPriority Sectors, Priority Markets' and Evolving sector opportunities”.
Trustlies at the core of the state’s investment strategy, with the report laudingInvest Punjab’s customer-centric approach to investors. To quote the report -“Invest Punjab has prepared a customized presentation on 'Cost to Investors'for some of its focus sectors such as Pharmaceuticals, Agriculture & FoodProcessing sectors. Information on average labour cost, cost of industrialland, taxes and available incentives is clearly mentioned and made available toinvestors, as and when required”.
Anothernotable achievement of Investment Punjab that has drawn praise from InvestIndia is its initiatives to connect with NRIs/NRPs through Indian Embassies aswell as Punjab NRI Sabha and other such organizations. Engaging communicationin the form of newsletters, latest policy and EODB initiatives, investibleprojects and latest announcements from the state government have promoted thisconnect, with the 'NRI Connect' feature on the Invest Punjab web portaloffering services such as facilitating investment projects of Punjabi diaspora,procedural guidance, advice on taxation, etc.
Aggarwalsaid the focus on creating a business-friendly environment in the state,through enhancement of business processes for facilitating investor managementand lead generation, will continue to be strengthened going forward.
Amongthe key projects that have start operations in the past four years, thespokesperson listed M/s Think Gas (HQSingapore) INR 2000 Cr, M/s Pepsico Ltd. (HQ USA) INR 100 cr., M/s VarunBeverages Ltd. INR 800 crore, M/s IOL Chemicals Ltd. INR 235 crores, M/s GodrejTyson Foods (HQ USA), M/s Sharaf Group (HQ UAE), M/s Air Liquide (HQ France),M/s Graepels Perforations Pvt. Ltd. (HQ Germany), M/s Sunjin India Feeds Pvt.Ltd. (HQ South Korea), M/s Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HQ UK), M/s InternationalTractors Ltd., M/s HPL Additives Ltd., M/s Isckon Balaji Foods Pvt. Ltd. andmany others.
Also,many others like M/s CN IFFCO (joint venture with Spanish firm Congelados deNavarra) INR 550+ Crore, M/s Happy Forgings Ltd. (INR 525 crore), M/s HMELRefinery Ltd. (INR 21991 crore) are in the construction phase of theirprojects, he said.