`Vibrant Gujarat’ to see 18,000 investment proposals

The sixth edition of the `Vibrant Gujarat Summit' which opened at the Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar today, saw investment commitments of Rs28,000 crore from corporates such as Essar, ABG Shipyard, Jubilant Lifescience and Adanis.

And with an estimated 67,000 participants, including diplomats, industrialists and academia from across the world, `Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2013' is expected elicit nearly 18,000 investment proposals.

The previous edition had seen investment commitments of Rs20,83,000 crore and the signing of nearly 8,000 MoUs. Although the proportion of actual investment could be much lower, the events have helped investors realise the potential in Gujarat.

The even also attracts some of the biggest names in the Indian corporate world, including Ratan Tata, Ambani Brothers, Anand Mahindra, Shashi Ruia, Gautam Adani, Anil Agarwal, Adi Godrej, among others.

Envoys of more than 50 countries, including the US, UK and a host of others, will also be in attendance.

While the total amount of investments forthcoming cannot be forecast at present, most of the proposals are expected to be from agro and food processing, engineering and auto, pharma, textiles, oil and gas, power, housing, urban development, among others.

''More than two-thirds of the total MoUs will be from micro, small and medium enterprises sector, which is in line with the government's focus on job creation. The investment intentions will propose jobs for more than 55 lakh youths,'' official sources said.

Close to 1,800 foreign delegates are expected at the Summit. Canada and Japan, which are the two partner countries of the Summit, are sending the biggest delegations with over 150 and 100 delegates respectively. There are more than 70 delegates from US too.