Emergent Gujarat

Having successfully organised seven constructive summits, the Government of Gujarat, as part of its journey towards sustainable long-term growth and inclusive development, is organising the 8th edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit from the 10th to 13th of January 2017 at Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

With the adverse effect of demonetisation still looming over the country, the New Year will witness industry bigwigs – both international and homegrown – queuing up to invest in India´s most industrially developed state, Gujarat. The occasion, Vibrant Gujarat (in its 8th edition), is all geared up to welcome the investors from all across the world. The Summit will bring together heads of States and Governments, ministers, executives from the corporate world, senior policymakers, heads of international institutions and academia from around the world who will meet to further the cause of development and promote cooperation.

The Vibrant Gujarat Global Trade will be covering nearly 25 sectors such as automobile & auto components, aero space & defence, biotechnology, agro & food processing, chemicals & petrochemicals, electronics, oil & gas, power & renewable energy and tourism, amongst many others.

Idea incubator
Interestingly, the event will also see a seminar on innovation, start-ups and entrepreneurship which is designed to help fresh ideas get off the ground quickly. The Gujarat government is also engaging with incubators and entrepreneurs from various fields such as academics and finance to help position Gujarat as a potential start-up hub.

MoU watch
Since its inception, in 2003, the Vibrant Gujarat summit has attracted 51,738 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) worth Rs 84.55 lakh crore, of which around 65.86 per cent projects are either under implementation or commissioned. However, it is expected that the present symposium will break all the previous records by a huge margin. According to internal sources, the state government is all set to sign MoUs worth Rs 30 lakh crore, surpassing all the previous investments set by this expo.

Investments worth Rs 25 lakh crore numbering 21,000 MoUs have already been lined up, and as the dates near, it is expected to swell beyond Rs 30 lakh crore. In 2015, the expo witnessed signing of as many as 21,334 MoUs worth Rs 25 lakh crore. Hence, carrying on the legacy of the previous seven editions, domestic corporate and multinational giants are all geared up for making big bang announcements.

Bigwigs like Reliance Group, Adani Group, Torrent Group, Zydus Group, Sintex Ltd, Nirma Ltd, MRF Ltd, Essar Group, UltraTech Cement, GHCL and NTPC Ltd (among others) will be making big-ticket announcements. In addition, multinationals like Vodafone, China´s Pacific Construction and Sinoma Taishan Fiberglass Inc have also lined up their investment plans.

Believe it or not, unlike previous editions, the current one has attracted Chinese eyeballs. The efforts by the state government have already reaped benefits as MoUs worth Rs 47,000 crore are already being signed with Chinese groups. Of these, about $2 billion worth of MoUs have been signed by a single Chinese group Sany for multiple infrastructure projects in the state. The rest ($5 billion) came from multiple road-shows held in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, where over 350 companies from these regions participated.

The MoU by Sany Group will see investment in projects like development of 1,000 MW of wind power from 2017 to 2022, development of 1,000 MW of wind plus solar power from 2017 to 2020, setting up of a facility for manufacturing of wind turbines, development of at least one small size Smart City in line with the Central government´s Smart City Mission initiative, and setting up a factory for housing through pre-cast concrete for the mass housing projects and a few real estate projects.

MSME takes the lead
Meanwhile, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have come up with the highest number of investment proposals to be signed at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit-2017. MSMEs don´t seem to lose any opportunity to revive the sector´s growth which has been affected by demonetisation.

According to a release by Federation of Gujarat Industries (FGI), MSMEs are adopting a positive. FGI said that various members of the association have also been included in a memorandum to be signed with the state.

MSMEs have lined up 16,634 MoUs with the final tally slated to be announced at the valedictory session of the event on January 11. The number is expected to rise further. The previous installment of the summit in 2015 had also received overwhelming support from the MSME sector which signed 17,081 MoUs and proposed investments crossing Rs 1 lakh crore.

Unlike large and mega projects, according to experts, the project implementation ratio of small industries is much better than bigger ones.

A mega-event!
In the true sense, Vibrant Gujarat has always been one of the biggest trade events, beating those held by peer states in India. And this time, it is going to be bigger! The expo will be covering 1.25 lakh sq mt of gross area and will showcase over 25 sectors. The mega exhibition will be housed in 14 domes and so far 75 per cent area has been already sold out to the exhibitors, participating from across the globe. In terms of country partners, the VGGS 2017 will see 12 nations partnering in the latest edition as against eight in the previous one. The 12 partner countries include Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, The Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Sweden, UAE, UK and USA.

Global Heads
Since the exhibition will be inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi, he will hold a dialogue with the heads of 35 international and 23 Indian companies at the global CEO roundtable on ´Transforming India´ at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar on the inaugural day. John Chambers, Chairperson of global technology giant Cisco; Bertrand-Marc Allen, President of Boeing International; and Jean-Bernard Levy, CEO of French electricity giant EDF, have already confirmed their participation. Besides, the presidents of Kenya and Rwanda, prime ministers of Portugal and Serbia, and deputy prime ministers of Russia and Poland will be among the dignitaries at the inaugural ceremony.

A Nobel Prize Series Exhibition – wherein Nobel-winning scientists will interact with students, scientists, industry leaders and policymakers – is being seen as one of the high points of the summit that has been projected as a platform for meeting of business minds.