Kochi: Kerala Industries Minister P K Kunhalikutty says the state cabinet will give the final clearance to any industrial project okayed at the Global Investors’ Meet (GIM), to be held here on 18 and 19 January 2003.

Says Kunhalikutty: “It is up to the cabinet to give the green signal to any project found feasible at the GIM. Before a certain project reaches the cabinet, it will be scrutinised at different stages of decision-making.”

All the project proposals will be transparent and anyone interested could check them with the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), he says. “The main objective of the GIM is to showcase Kerala as a friendly investment destination. It will project the core competency of Kerala. The GIM is intended to tell the world that such-and-such facilities exist here and that if you invest, you can derive such-and-such benefits.”

He says there is a general apprehension that Kerala is not an investment-friendly state. “This is not true. The GIM will attempt to erase such impressions. Memorandums of understanding on the projects costing Rs 7,000 could be signed at the GIM. Prospective investors have shown interest in at least 200 projects.”

He claims that if the GIM goes off smoothly as planned, unemployment will be cut drastically. “Some 1 lakh jobs could be created in the IT sector alone in two to three years. The whole exercise is aimed at reducing unemployment. If the GIM fails, it will be the loss of the unemployed youth.”

Kunhalikutty says his department is thinking of offering short-duration training courses in proper English-speaking without an accent to IT professionals so that they could find jobs in the IT-enabled services like call centres and back-office processing.