Hyderabad, June 19, 2004:
Indo-Asian News Service
India will set up economic zones exclusively for NRIs to facilitate
more investments, central Minister of State for NRI Affairs Jadish Tytler
said here Saturday.
Addressing a news conference after interacting with NRI industrialists,
he said an economic zone would come up in every state capital.
Andhra Pradesh will have two such zones - one in Hyderabad and another
in Visakhapatnam.
Tytler said economic zones would be set up on a priority basis in the
capitals of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat,
Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab as these states
account for a large number of people of the Indian diaspora.
The minister's interaction was organised by the Andhra Pradesh Industrial
Infrastructure Corporation.
The economic zones with state of the art infrastructure will have hotels,
motels, higher educational institutions, IT industry and research centres.
He said his ministry was working with the defence ministry to create
opportunities for the NRI scientists keen to work in the country.
He said the government would work out a package to attract NRI investment
in tourism and education and facilitate transfer of technology and joint
ventures with local Indians.
According to the minister, of the 35-million-strong Indian diaspora,
about 20 million could invest anything between $5000 and $500 million.
"Telugu people are the richest of the diaspora in the US,"
he said.
Tytler said the new government was keen to create conditions to make
NRIs invest back in their country.
Claiming that the Congress-led government was committed to protect
the interests of NRIs, he said it was for this purpose that a separate
ministry was created as a nodal point to address all issues related
to the diaspora. He promised to announce a policy for NRIs soon.
Tytler told NRIs that a single window clearance system would be introduced
both at the centre and in the states for those NRIs wanting to invest.
"This will save time for the NRIs. They have to run around for
seven to eight months to get clearances and by that time the business
they would have started back home would finish," he said.
The minister said he would convene a conference of all state chief ministers
and ministers handling NRI affairs to discuss the proposed economic
zones and other issues of NRIs.
Referring to the problems that NRIs face while making investments,
he promised that things would start changing in two months. "Your
investments can create new job opportunities and help improve the infrastructure
but it is sad that they are not being tapped and your are being put
to a lot of inconvenience because of the old setup," the minister
added.
"We want to make things comfortable for NRIs as this country belongs
to them. When China and Israel can create conditions to facilitate their
diaspora to invest back why can't we do so," he asked.
Indo-Asian News Service