AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the biennial Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors meet by throwing open a mega trade exhibition that has over 1,000 firms from as many as 16 countries displaying their products, even as the highlight of the sixth edition of the summit is an international conference of academic institutions with expected participation of 200 delegates from 130 institutions from 50 countries on June 8, 2013. Delegations from several countries and Indian Sates attended the inaugural ceremony held in State’s capital Gandhinagar amid huge fanfare
The Chief Minister said: “The global trade show is one of the largest of its kind in the country… Gone are the days when the States could not hold events comparable to those in Delhi and elsewhere.”
The biennial global investor summit, organised by the Gujarat Government, will be held from January 11 to 13, 2013. Since it started in 2003, the biennial Vibrant Gujarat Summit has brought in record investment and created new opportunities for the people of Gujarat. This year the summit is expected to continue its anchoring role in taking the state to greater heights of development.
The Chief Minister said the trade show “offers a unique opportunity to corporate houses, institutions and industrial giants not only to showcase their innovations, products and services to a large gathering of Indian and global audience but also facilitates meaningful business-to-business interactions resulting in serious business and trade opportunities.”
The State of Gujarat, known as the Growth Engine of India, is now moving towards leadership in knowledge advancements based on the pillars of innovation and sustainability. The Vibrant Gujarat 2013 Summit is going to be transformational and revolutionary – both in its coverage and scale. It will provide a platform for various states of India and other countries to cooperate and explore attractive business opportunities.
The Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit 2013 will be attended by top-level delegates of over 100 nations! European nations that will participate include UK, Denmark and Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland are the eastern European nations who will be present. A large number of African nations will send high level delegations. UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman will joint the 3 day business meet. From South Asia Sri Lanka and Pakistan will be joining the summit and moving further eastward there are China, Japan, South Korea who will have significant delegations in Gujarat when the summit commences. Australia too will be a part of the biennial summit With a view to generate more employment, the Summit will also focus on the MSMEs.
International port authorities and port operators will share technical and management expertise with private port operators in Gujarat. With visionary policies and proactive measures, GMB has firmly established Gujarat as the numero-uno maritime State in the country.
Today, GMB Ports handle 28 % of the national cargo and 70 % of the cargo handled by the non-major ports of India. The theme for the Port Seminar will be enhancing sustainbility in Port-led Development in Gujarat.
International port authorities and port operators including major players like Israel Ports Company and Port of Antwerp will share technical and management expertise with private port operators in Gujarat.
“Port operators and authorities from Antwerp, Israel, Russia and other countries will remain present at the summit. Fresh investments in the ports sector will be a derivative of this summit," said a senior official in the state industries department. The port operators and authorities from overseas are likely to share their expertise to handle large-sized and complex vessels at the ports. Also, they will interact with entrepreneurs and state officials to bring improvement in the management and operations of ports and port traffic. There are several other events lined up in the run up to and during the 3-day summit. Representatives from 157 foreign universities and 100 universities from Gujarat and India will attend a 2-day International Conference for Academic Institutions.
KNOWLEDGE PARTNERSHIPS, GLOBAL COLLABORATIONS THE FOCUS AREA
Sharing details about the 2013 Vibrant Gujarat Summit, Shri Narendra Modi affirmed that the summit would be knowledge-based strategic partnerships and global collaborations. As a part of pre-summit activities, Government of Gujarat planning to organize an ICAI 2013, which will be a two day event on 9th and 10th January 2013 at Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU), Gandhinagar.
Gujarat – the most progressive state, located in the western part of India, is home to several globally eminent academic institutes and Centres of Excellences in different fields viz. Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad; Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Gandhinagar; National Institute of Design (NID), Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) and Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU) etc. Currently, the State has around 51 universities and over 1,400 institutes of higher education affiliated to these universities catering to over 7 million students.
To improve existing tie ups and develop new collaborations; the State of Gujarat Government has organized ICAI 2013. The first edition International Conference for Academic Institutions (ICAI) was organized as an one day event during the Vibrant Gujarat 2011 Summit and nearly 33 delegates from 25 universities representing 9 countries attended ICAI 2011 and nearly 74 MoUs / Letter of Intentions (LoIs) for collaborations between Gujarat universities, foreign universities and Gujarat industries were signed / acknowledged reputes from various countries.
The Government would give special emphasis to youth, women and employment opportunities as well. A boost would be given to sunrise sectors such as green energy. "We have already been receiving investment proposals from big and small textile majors which will be announced during the summit. We should easily witness memorandums of understanding (MoUs) in the textile sector to the tune of over Rs 20,000 crore," a senior state government official stated. As per government sources, companies like Arvind Ltd., Welspun India Ltd., Vardhman Group and Oswal Spinning, among others will be signing MoUs for investment proposals for projects in different verticals of the textile sector.
In the current Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2013, the State Government has specifically focused on the spinning and technical textile sector, apart from other verticals in the value chain. The spinning industry in Gujarat itself is set to witness foray of major North and South Indian players. At an anticipated investment of over Rs 7,000 crore, the summit will see commitments for close to 3 million spindles, exceeding the state government's target of 2.5 million spindles.
Gujarat Government is considering a dedicated fund to enhance joint research activities in academic institutions in the state. There also will be a fund for faculty improvement, to ensure quality research by them. Taking cues from success of International Roundtable of Academic Institutions (IRAI) during Vibrant Gujarat 2011, state education department is now focusing on organising International Conference of Academic Institutions (ICAI) during this year's edition of the summit. More than 200 representatives from 130 international education institutes of 56 countries will explore possibilities of partnership with state-based universities in the international conference on January 9. A highlight of the Summit is the Vibrant Gujarat Global Trade Show spread across an area of more than 100,000 square meters with participation from over 1,000 companies from more than 25 sectors and 14 countries. Over a million people are expected to visit the Trade Show. The Chief Minister expressed his gratitude to the Government of India, all the State Governments who are present and all the other participants and stakeholders.
11th January 2013 no doubt going to be a memorable day- one when Gujarat’s development story that has already made a mark for itself across the world will have yet another chapter added in its march towards a Bhavya and Divya Gujarat!
