By Archana Sharma
Jaipur, June 3 (IANS) In order to turn crisis into opportunity, the Rajasthan government has been in contact with Japan and US officials on setting up manufacturing facilities in the state. While Japan has sounded positive on prospective investment in Rajasthan, talks are on with the US officials, Chief Secretary DB Gupta told IANS.
Gupta said that elaborate discussions were held with the Japanese Ambassador during a videoconference at a CII summit.
“I have had a very positive discussion with Japanese Ambassador in India, Satoshi Suzuki, on making Rajasthan a preferred destination for investment.
“Suzuki said that Rajasthan will be their preferred destination if Japanese companies want to shift from China. However, he also emphasised that in the present situation, no figures were available on the number of companies wanting to shift from China,” the officer added.
“We are also in touch with South Korea on the investment issue,” the Chief Secretary said.
Around 496 acres have already been allotted for Japanese investors in Neemrana, where 45 Japanese companies are operating. Another 100 acres around the facility has also been earmarked for them.
“In Giloth, near Neemrana, we are creating a special zone to house Japanese and Korean companies,” Gupta said.
On the ongoing trade war between the US and China, the Chief Secretary said that since American companies will not prefer the communist country to set up bases in the given situation, the Rajasthan government has written to US Ambassador to India, Kenneth Juster, too on the matter.
“In an official letter to Juster, I have mentioning that if the US plans investment in India, Neemrana will make for a good investment destination as law and order is quite good here and it is the right time to invest.” Gupta also reminded Juster that Rajasthan faced no labour problem.
“We are also communicating with JETRO (Japan External Trade Organisation) and KOTRA (Korean Trade Organisation) for investment in Rajasthan, he said.
The Rajasthan government has set up a special task force to look into investment aspect.
“We are trying to highlight The Rajasthan Investment Promotion Scheme, 2019 (RIPS-2019) which was framed by bringing in the best policies from all over India. The policy is most liberal and offers all incentives to prospective investors.”
“We have written to Japan and US to offer them customised incentives as a special case if they come to Rajasthan, over and above the benefits offered under RIPS 2019,” Gupta said.
“We have high hopes as the Japanese Ambassador was quite positive and said that he will wholeheartedly support our proposal and communicate with JETRO, which is Japan’s business chambers like CII and FICCI,” he said.
Gupta also said that Rajasthan planned to hold webinars and videoconferences with business chambers of different countries like Europe Business Group Federation, US India Business Council, and US India Strategic Partnership Forum to explore more investment avenues.
(Archana Sharma can be contacted at [email protected])
–IANS
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