We are open for business, come partner with J&K: LG to industry

Seeking investments for Jammu and Kashmir, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Thursday said the union territory is open for business and urged the industry to partner with it. Sinha said his government wants to see industry, jobs, skilled workforce, modern villages, and world-class infrastructure walk hand-in-hand together in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in 2021. “We’re open for business. And we’re set for growth which is sustainable and builds businesses with purpose. Come and partner with us, and enrich this partnership summit with your ideas and your inputs,” the Lt Governor said while addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Partnership Summit-2020, organized through virtual mode. It is my aim to create a stable policy and regulatory ecosystem for businesses so that they can build for scale and create a thriving start-up ecosystem in J&K, he said.




“I want to see industry, jobs, skilled workforce, modern villages, and world-class infrastructure walk hand-in-hand together in Jammu & Kashmir in 2021. We will therefore do our utmost to ensure prosperous development of this union territory with your support,” Sinha said. He called upon CII and its members to partner the union territory to shape up a magnificent future and to invest in greenfield projects. “In order to attain this goal, I promise to work with you on the necessary interventions. We’re planning to host the J&K Global Investors’ Summit soon, and CII is the partner organization for it as well,” he said. Sinha called for unlocking the potential of J&K in a multi-dimensional fashion through systemic interventions at individual and community level. The purpose of such interventions is to effectively support and encourage young individuals to achieve their true potential, he said. “Since we are pulling ourselves together to restart the engine of economic growth that was partially disrupted due to the global pandemic, we cannot live and grow alone. We have to be together to multiply comprehensive development in every sector,” he said. He further called for joint efforts by the government, private enterprises, and civil society groups to overcome social, ecological and economic challenges for a post-COVID world.

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Sinha said the government and industry need to act innovatively and at a pace faster than pre-COVID era to revive economic growth. “Each and every sector of our economic wheel is interdependent on one another just like the countries in a globalised world are deeply connected for economic cooperation and speeding up industrial growth while improving living conditions for their own people,” he said. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a special economic and comprehensive package of Rs 20 lakh crore for ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’, he gave a vision that self-reliance is different from being self-centred, and India has a lot of potential to contribute to the development of the entire humanity, he added. Sinha observed that J&K has great growth potential as it has talented and young English-speaking population, coupled with established supply chains, ease of doing business, single-window clearances, competitive regulatory and policy landscapes, and rich natural resources. Highlighting major initiatives of the government of the union territory, he said over 150 new initiatives and reforms have been undertaken in under 100 days. He expressed hope to see ‘Expression of Interest’ from industry on the themes of livelihood generation, education and skill development, sports and recreation, social impact projects, fellowships, media, art and culture, agriculture, and allied industries, among others.

He suggested investing more in rural infrastructure, like connecting villages to nearest towns, more infrastructure for crop storage, and access to quality public transport for a sustainable new business model. “Each and every issue starting from jobs, clean energy to credit growth has to be tackled in-depth to mitigate problems threatening the current financial stability,” he added. Sinha said J&K has more than 7 lakh micro industries and around 3,000 small industries. Like any other sector, this sector too has an important role in providing employment opportunities. “We are addressing twin issues of investment and improving productivity levels. We have committed a lot of resources and implemented 20-point reforms to ensure there is a permanent shoring up in productivity,” he said. Soon J&K will witness scaling up of investment in several sunrise sectors, aligned with policies that will support global priorities by emphasizing re-engineering and re-alignment of business policy for sustainable growth, enhanced production and consumption, he added.