Thiruvananthapuram: Conscious about the current challenges in attracting private investments to the state, the Kerala government will soon announce its new labour, IT and industrial policies. The three new policies, according to officials, will be totally investor- and labour-friendly.

The focus of the proposed labour policy is: stopping the exploitation of investors by an organised work force. A state of high wages, the Kerala labour earned notoriety mainly to strange wage heads like nokku coolie, a charge paid to head loaders for just overseeing the process of loading and unloading of heavy equipment using machines. The Kerala government is also planning a separate legislation to prevent such unfair labour practices.

The growing wage bill not coupled with productivity has made several cashew-processing units to shift their operations to Tamil Nadu where the wage levels are low. This, despite the quality of work is better in Kerala.

The proposed policy will also reinforce the rights of investors in their recruitment and not be bound by sons of soil claims. In addition special industrial enclaves like Technopark and Apparel Park will be declared as public utilities, again to prevent flash strikes and hartals.

As regards the new IT policy, the government will lay focus on training of human resources. Successive governments shunned private investments in education and the results are there to be seen. The most literate states share of software exports from its IT parks are just Rs141 crore as against Rs 7,475 crore and Rs 2,956 crore logged by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu respectively.

Incentives for investing companies will be based on employment generation and value-addition. According to the officials the incentives will be path-breaking and the first of its kind in the country.

Biotech is also another area where the Kerala government is paying attention to attract investments. The state has appointed leading agriculture scientist Dr M S Swaminathan as the chairman of the biotech cell.

Restructuring of loss-making public sector units is yet another issue the Kerala government is looking at. The state has 111 government-owned units that is nearly a tenth of such companies in the country.