Friday, November 18, 2011

Kerala plans Rs4,000b investments in 5 years


Kerala government expects investments worth between Rs3000 billion to Rs4000 billion during the 12th Five Year Plan beginning next fiscal year. The total Plan outlay is estimated at Rs1005 billion, up almost 150 per cent from the 11th Plan.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the estimate was quite reasonable and it could be achievable if the state was willing to tap the opportunities thrown up by the economic reforms in India. The state expects huge private investments in infrastructure development.

“Funding is not at all a problem for infrastructure development. We need to identify viable projects that would attract investments and create jobs,” Chandy said during an interaction with the editors on the draft approach paper on the 12th Plan in his office on Wednesday.

The government plans to shift focus of education sector to skills development as most of the youths coming from the technical schools are increasingly found unemployable. In the farming sector, the focus will be on modernization and mechanisation to attract educated unemployed.

“We need to create more sectors with high employment potential to maintain higher growth rate and to wipe out unemployment. We also need to address the second generation problems in healthcare to retain the state’s leadership in quality of life index,” he said. The government intends to set up a permanent mechanism to interact with expatriate Keralites on a regular basis.

It will also increase funding for rehabilitation of returnees due to global economic turmoil and help them to set up medium and small enterprises.

Earlier addressing the three-day Infrastructure Conference that opened on Wednesday, the chief minister said it was sad that the state that had made great strides in many areas was lagging in infrastructure development which is a catalyst for attracting investments and creating jobs.
“Our focus always has been on the public sector at the cost of infrastructure. We already have three international airport and another one is coming up in Kannur. Now the achievements in healthcare and education should be replicated in infrastructure development with focus on roads and smart waterways,” he said.

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