Chief Minister’s speech at the “New Business Opportunities in Karnataka”, seminar

.Chief Minister HD Kumaraswami speech at the “New Business Opportunities in Karnataka”, seminar, Jewel of India, Silver Spring, MD, USA

Ladies and Gentlemen,
A very good afternoon to everyone.
Happy Independence Day to all of you in advance! I am glad to be here during such an important celebration of the country.
At the outset, I thank you all for making it to this meeting which was organised in a very short notice. My sincere thanks to Ms. Keerthi Swamy and her colleagues and organizers, who made this possible, in such a short period.
Though I am not on an official tour to America, I wanted to take this opportunity to meet you and throw light upon the exciting new opportunities that our state has to offer to the investors across the globe.
Today Karnataka is recognized as one of the most progressive and industrially advanced States in the country. It has also emerged as a preferred investment destination for both, domestic and foreign investments. The third year in a row, Karnataka is ranked 1st in the country as the most attractive State for investments.
Recently, Bengaluru, the State Capital has been recognized as the world’s ‘Most Dynamic City’.
The reasons for Karnataka’s growth lie in its pro-active business-friendly policies, robust infrastructure, availability of highly skilled manpower, and ecosystem that nurtures innovation and growth. As a result of all these efforts, Karnataka’s GDP is growing at a rate of 10 percent compared to the national average of 7.2 percent.
Karnataka contributes 50 percent in total India’s machine tool production, 39 percent of IT exports, 67 percent of aircraft and helicopters for Defence Services, and 33 percent of biotech exports.
Our state is also at the forefront of cutting edge technology such as block chain, additive manufacturing, 3D printing, robotics, nano- technology, medical technology, and genetic engineering.
Karnataka is now ready for business as never before. We have made Doing Business Easier and Smarter by ensuring 98.6 percent compliance to provisions of Business Reforms Action Plan. We are also undertaking comprehensive reforms to ensure seamless and time-bound processes for project approval, the grant of various statutory permissions, and licenses.
Our Transparent Policy Initiatives are aimed at providing extensive support to new industries and entrepreneurs. Today we have more than 20 policies for diverse sectors and we have recently announced the Electrical Vehicle and Energy Storage Policy 2017, the first state to do so with a vision to make Karnataka as the ‘EV capital of India’.
We are also in the process of drafting New Industrial Policy 2019-24.The vision of the new policy is to create a robust ecosystem for future growth and employment generation. Our focus includes bringing our industrial infrastructure, policies, and practices to best global standards and to convert Karnataka into a Global Manufacturing and Services Hub.
We are particularly keen on industrial expansion in the Tier-2 and Tier-3 centers, through our 9 industrial cluster scheme under a new “Industrial Cluster Development Model” program which is first of its kind initiative in the country. The cluster-based approach aims to increase the production capacities of the industries by creating industry-specific manufacturing clusters in the state and create nine lakh jobs in the next four years.
The 9 product specific clusters are; PCB manufacturing in Mysuru; Manufacturing of Toys in Koppal; Textile industry in Ballari; Manufacturing of Tiles and Sanitary ware in Hassan; Manufacturing of Solar Power goods in Kalaburagi; Manufacturing of LED lights in Chitradurga; Mobile phone Components manufacturing in Chikkaballapura; Manufacture of Agricultural implements in Bidar; Sports & Fitness goods in Tumakuru.
MSMEs which stands for Medium Scale Manufacturing Enterprises form an important and growing segment of Karnataka’s industrial sector. As of now, we have 48482 SMEs registered in the state with a total investment of Rs.116 billion, and employment potential of 4.5 lakhs.
The state government has many programs for the growth of MSME sector. The 10 percent interest subvention scheme of KSFC helps to provide capital investment to both existing and new projects. Karnataka has also announced its own cluster development scheme for the MSME wherein 80 percent of total investment up to Rs. 5 crores would be provided by the government.
Our Government is determined to ensure that Karnataka leads the world in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and use the power of big data, high computing capacity, artificial intelligence, and analytics to digitize manufacturing in Karnataka.
Centres of Excellence in various sectors such as Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Biotechnology, Animation, Visual Effects and gaming sector, Cyber Security,& Robotics have been set up to drive innovation and entrepreneurship in the State of Karnataka.
I am proud to share with you that today we are one of the top five R&D ecosystems of the world and also the second best ecosystem for start-ups. United Nations has ranked Bengaluru as the 4thlargest technology cluster in the world after Silicon Valley, Boston, and London.
To attract further investment, job creation, establish global linkages for the State, the “Global Investors Meet” will be organized next year in January 2020.
I seek your active support, participation and investment in these exciting, new and unique business opportunities and visions for Karnataka. I seek your active participation to make the Global Investors Meet a grand success. For further information on this meet please contact Ms. Keerthi Swamy and Elisha Pulavarti of the organization US India Small and Medium Enterprise Council.
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the following distinguished officials who took time from their busy schedule to be here,
Mr. Puneet Kundal, Acting Ambassador & Commerce Minister, Embassy of India,
Mr. Steven McAdams, Executive Director, Governor’s office of Community Initiatives, State of Maryland
I would like to express my sincere thanks to the following organizers of this wonderful event
Ms. Keerthi Swamy, Mr. Elisha Pulavarti, Mr. Pavan Bezwada, Mr. Suresh Ramachandra, Mr. Anand Poojary, Mr. Shantha Raj, Mr. Madesha Basavaraj, and most of all Mr. Ben Chikkaswamy.
And thanks to each and every one of you for taking the time to come and attend this event.
Wish you all a very Happy 4th of July once again!
Jai Hind, Jai Karnataka