Bengaluru: Large and Medium Industries Minister MB Patil and Electronics & IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge stated on Thursday that several American companies have expressed interest to invest around Rs 25,000 crore in the state of Karnataka.
Jointly addressing a press conference about the outcome of the business promotion delegation headed by them to the US they stated that some of the companies are already in the process of investing around $1 billion here.
While some companies have planned to commence their operations here some others have proposed to expand their already existing operations. Our discussions primarily focussed on semiconductors, Aerospace and defence, Electric vehicles, space, and precision manufacturing, MB Patil explained.
During the visit that spanned from the east coast to the west coast of the US, a total of 36 interactive meetings were held, he informed.
Patil said that the ideas were shared with leading companies like Applied Materials, AMD, Juniper, Global Foundries, LAM Research, Boeing, Krypton, Dell, MKS Instruments, GE Healthcare, Intelsat, RTX, Teradyne, Texas Instruments, Apple, and Waters Corp among others. The delegation also met with a few promising startups like Leolabs, Fictiv and T-Second, he added.
“The purpose of the visit to the USA was to highlight Karnataka as a promising destination for investment. This visit to the US was necessary and important considering the fast-changing geo-political dynamics as a large number of global companies are looking at India, especially Karnataka as an attractive, safe destination for new investment or expanding their existing presence”, Patil remarked.
The delegation has reassured the investors that Karnataka is an attractive and favoured destination with its industry-friendly policies, lucrative incentives availability of technically qualified skilled workforce, and abundant availability of natural resources, he stated.
The themes of discussions with industry leaders also centred on joint skilling initiatives, expansion of the supplier base, strengthening the existing R&D ecosystem, and collaboration on establishing Centers of Excellence with the State Government, the Minister noted.
“We have offered all possible support to the companies to invest in Karnataka and briefed the senior executives of global companies about the state’s ease of doing business, favourable policies, sectorial incentives, and industrial infrastructure built in the state. Our main objective was to showcase Karnataka as an attractive investment destination”, M B Patil said.
Speaking about the visit MB Patil and Priyank Kharge said, “We have met some of the prestigious companies in the United States during our visit and we have tried to understand their requirement and have invited them to Karnataka for expansion or collaboration. We had been to the US with a mission and a clear vision for Karnataka and we are happy to share that the visit was fruitful.”
Further, Minister Priyank Kharge said that the purpose of the visit to the USA was to attract investment at a time when not only China but other states within the country are competing with each other to attract investors. “We have come out with an innovation in our approach to reach out to the investors and went to their doorsteps in the US to convince them about the opportunities to invest in Karnataka.
The state government is tying up with AMD to train engineers based on the syllabus provided by the company to meet their requirements for human resources. AMD will be hiring 800 engineers in India, he said.
Stating that Karnataka stands at 18th position in the innovation index, Kharge said that the state was taking many new initiatives to improve the ranking and the aim is to be among the Top 10.
Priyank Kharge also stated that the government would organise a global start-up summit in Bengaluru next year.
GIM
Minister MB Patil said that the Karnataka government would organise the next global investors meet (GIM) at the end of 2024 or in early 2025.