Gujarat: A preferred place to live and to do business

Gujarat, the most progressive state located on the western coast of India was born on 1st May 1960 in the form of a separate state in the Union of India.

Soon after its formation as a state, Gujarat has embarked upon the path of achieving rapid economic development by realizing its potential to the fullest extent. Primarily an agrarian state five decades ago, it has now become a leading industrialized state in India. Various initiatives have been taken by my Government to create congenial growth environment - apt policies in place, development of world class infrastructure, its strategic location, availability of skilled and productive workforce and enterprising nature of the people. The Government is in turn committed to create a business-friendly environment making the state the leading investment destination.

Over a period of time, the state has successfully leveraged its potential by proper planning and judicious utilization of resources. It is today a leader defining new parameters of growth and development not only in India but in the Asia Pacific region, only to be emulated by others.

Contribution of Gujarat to the Indian economy has been immense, spanning across a wide range of sectors. Gujarat with only 5% of the population of India contributes as much as 16% to the industrial output in India and around 22% to the Indian exports.

From 2003 onwards, we have launched a novel campaign known as Vibrant Gujarat. Under this campaign, every two years the Government is organizing Global Investors’ Summit with several objectives of showcasing the industrial strength of Gujarat and presenting the opportunities for investment across sectors. The recent Vibrant Gujarat 2011 has grown beyond traditional investment objective, and successfully implemented new angle to the business meet. It is now a prominent platform to share knowledge and exchange experience as various knowledge events took place during the last edition of the Summit.

Five summits have been held so far, mobilizing a whopping figure of USD 879 billion worth of investments in the form of MOUs signed in diverse sectors. Majority of the investment is flowing in the infrastructure sector. The Government is set to host yet another summit on 12th and 13th January 2013 at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar.

Gujarat offers investors the right mix of stable political environment, a culture of openness and respect, a hard working and knowledgeable workforce, excellent infrastructure, and a government that warmly and openly encourages overseas investments in a wide array of opportunities.

Our Government has embarked in various innovative projects and initiatives to realise our vision of Vibrant Gujarat.

E-Governance Projects and Initiatives

Awarded for Best e-Governance, Gujarat is a frontline State in the implementation of e-governance policies & projects and setting up of key infrastructure for E-Governance.

Gujarat Government focuses on growth and development of new & emerging technology areas. It has been increasingly using the ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) to offer citizen based service as per convenient location with an initiative to improve the reach, make services more transparent and reduce response time with reducing costs. The Government is also pro active in its initiatives and ranks first state in the country to have made e-Governance functional in all its Municipalities and Municipal Corporations.

Education Projects and Initiatives

‘Smart Goals’ with a future vision ‘Education for All’ is a major Project of the Education Department with its Continuous Education and Literacy Policies geared to promote Literacy, reduce drop out rates, focus on girl education, teachers’ training and a series of other initiatives being implemented.

Girl Education, Infrastructure, Health and Sanitation are the many areas in the process of continuous Education, Literacy, and Educational Awareness and on path to enhancement in quality implementation. The Government vision is for SEE (Socio-Economic- Education) growth with primary education, secondary education, higher education,continuous education, literacy education, technical education, pharmacy education etc.

Agriculture Projects and Initiatives

Leading in ‘Green Revolution’ – Gujarat has achieved Agricultural Growth table at 9.6% and have carved a niche in the field of Agricultural Development in India.

Gujarat Agro vision 2010 envisages improving the quality of life of the rural population, by widening their employment opportunities and increasing their income. 63% of the population of Gujarat lives in rural areas and depends for its livelihood on agriculture and the rural nonfarm sector that is interlinked with agriculture. The Government is sensitive to the role of Agriculture in Economic development with a vision:

• Greater wealth creation for farmers and farm labourers
•
• Offer a sustainable increase in productivity
• Ensures Food Security
• Offer higher value addition to agricultural produce and exports
• Conservation of Water resources through micro irrigation

The vision seeks to accelerate demand driven agricultural and agro industrial growth in the new globalized agricultural environment. The goal for Gujarat agriculture is to become a world-class producer and supplier in the crops where it enjoys competitive advantage.

Global Warming: Climate Change Initiatives

Managing Climate Change is a major challenge to humanity. To tackle it, Gujarat has established a separate Department for Climate Change. This Initiative by Gujarat Government is a trendsetter not only for India but for the whole of Asia as it is the “First in Asia” with a Department for Climate Change. It is the 4th State/Province in the World to have a Department for Climate Change.

Set up in February 2009, the Department is to handle issues of Climate Change. The Initiative is to give a human face to environmental issues; empower people to become active agents of sustainable development; promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues; and advocate partnership, which will ensure all citizens and people in Gujarat to enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.

Infrastructure Projects and Initiatives

Gujarat has always believed that it is the infrastructure which will drive growth in various sectors of the economy as well as social well-being. Therefore Gujarat is the first state in the country to enact a legal framework for PPP in infrastructure sector – the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB).

Gujarat is today the front runner State in development and privatization of Infrastructure. With private participation a number of ports, roads, railways and hydro electric projects have been developed.

The Growth Strategy: Phased development

Our Government realized that infrastructure development is the key to economic progress and therefore had laid greater emphasis on it. Over a period of time, Gujarat adopted a systematic strategy to plan its infrastructure development. For the purpose, concerted planning has been carried out to move up the value chain of industrial development – from clusterbased scattered industrial development across the state – to industrial estate to integrated industrial development in the form of large industrial areas or special investment regions. Over the years, the industrial infrastructure development model of Gujarat had witnessed four phases:

Phase I- Development of various product clusters in the state

Phase II- Development of industrial estates including sectorspecific estates

Phase III- Development of SEZs (including multi-product and multi-services zones)

Phase IV-- Large Scale Developments- Special Investment Regions (SIR), DMIC etc.

This has resulted in transforming the industrial landscape of Gujarat considerably from that of the small industries to medium and large industries in the recent years. This has also helped the Government in correcting regional imbalances considerably, thereby achieving the goal of inclusive and sustainable development aimed by the State Government.

My main motto is to remain dynamic and never stick to the status quo or be bound by the hackneyed cliché, “old is gold.” In order to realize our vision of Vibrant Gujarat we have overhauled the entire state machinery and thrown wide open the doors in all directions. Apart from inviting multinational and foreign entrepreneurs, the Government has designed and organized

agricultural festivals, focused great attention on female education with a view to bringing about social change. We have adopted all these innovative measures not merely to modernize and equip administration but also to inculcate responsive work culture in the administration.