Malaysian Companies Can Explore Business Opportunities In India's Jharkhand State

By Manik Mehta New York, Oct 4 (Bernama) -- At a recent roadshow event in New York, the mineral-rich state of Jharkhand in Eastern India made a strong pitch for foreign investors highlighting the state’s natural mineral resources, infrastructure and "reputation" for ease of doing business. State Chief Minister Raghubar Das said Jharkand offered good business opportunities in a number of sectors, including some that would interest Malaysian companies that have been scouting for investment opportunities in India. Das outlined what he described as the state’s "opportunity matrix" which envisaged the setting up of "smart cities" in places like Ranchi and Barhi, a park for plastics manufacturing and distribution at Deoghar, electronic manufacturing cluster and an automotive vendor park in Adityapur and an apparel park in Irba and Ranchi. The chief minister also emphasised the importance given to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in his state because these units formed the backbone of the economy. "Our state welcomes foreign direct investments (FDIs) from any part of the world. Our target is to achieve 20,000 megawatts electricity by 2020," he added. He also assured that land acquisition in India had, generally, been fraught with difficulties for foreign companies setting up greenfield projects but it was not a problem in his state. Sunil Kumar Barnwal, Secretary in Jharkhand’s Department of Industry, said industrial parks were a vehicle to attract foreign investors. The state government was building up modern infrastructure and industrial parks to attract FDIs in the manufacturing sector. "To facilitate projects planned by foreign investors, our government has set up a single window clearance which ensures accelerated and time-bound approvals, besides simplified regulations and reduced timelines," Barnwal said. He added that electronics and electrical, automotive parts and components, and solar power were priority sectors for the state. Saying that the "world’s richest mineral wealth" existed in Jharkhand, Barnwal and the state’s new policies were strongly incentive-oriented to attract foreign direct investments. Given Malaysia's strengths in areas such as electronics and electrical, automobile parts and components and solar power, Jharkhand offered an interesting industrial landscape, An Indian businessman, specialising in automotive parts and components, said he had met executives of several Malaysian companies manufacturing automotive parts and components recently and had discussed the possibility of setting up a joint venture in Jharkhand. "Tie-ups between Indian and Malaysian manufacturers of automotive parts and components will generate huge synergies. "We are still in the early stage of negotiations," he said, declining to name the Malaysian companies which he merely described as "well-established players" in the automotive parts and components industry. Barnwal pointed out that Jharkhand had over 800 auto ancillary and auto component units in Jamshedpur and Adityapur. Since steel is extensively used in the production of automotive parts and components, expansion of steel plants in Jamshedpur and Bokaro would bolster the auto and auto components’ industry in the state. "An excellent base exists for automobile ancillaries, precision, electronically and computer-operated machine tools and farm equipment industries, generating strong domestic demand for industrial vehicles and mobile equipment like dumpers, excavators and cranes," he claimed. -- BERNAMA