UP minister on five-day US visit to woo investors
(Sourced from PTI)
To showcase Uttar Pradesh as an ideal investment destination, cabinet minister Sidharth Nath Singh today embarked on a five-day visit to the US to rope in certain reputed companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Amazon for setting up their units in the state. Over two dozen US firms showed their interest to invest in UP last October.
"My tour will start with a visit to Medtronic, one of the largest health companies in the world. The company has evinced keen interest in establishing cath labs in every district hospital of the state," Singh said. Meetings will also be held with ride-hailer UBER's officials, which is so far serving commuters only in Lucknow and want to expand to tier-2 cities, he said.
Singh said officials of Mastercard and Visa, who want to expand their footprint in UP, are likely to meet him. Apart from this, "Adobe and CISCO, have plans for setting up manufacturing units in state." Singh, who is also UP government's official spokesperson, said he will visit Stanford University on May 1 and deliver a lecture on vast potential of UP in several fields.
Singh informed that he will get honor of ringing the bell at New York Stock Exchange. Ringing of the opening bell has become a ceremonious event where dignitaries visiting the stock markets that are trading for first-day are given the honor of ringing the bell.
Referring to his scheduled meeting with Marc Allen, President of Boeing International, Singh said that Boeing wants to bring fighter aircraft to India. He is also likely to attend a meeting of UP diaspora in New York. "We want to explore the possibility of setting up a financial hub/center in the state, which will deal in banking and stock exchange activities," he said.
Asked to comment on similar activities carried out by previous SP government, Singh said, "The difference is that BJP stands for governance and transparency. The law and order situation has improved in UP, and there is no corruption. The US investments in UP are being monitored by the PMO." UP is now known for fast-decision taking and for ease of doing business, he said.
BJP's 'Sankalp Patra' had pledged to create massive job opportunities for youth in the state by promoting investments, he said, adding that it was a step in that direction. Seeking to showcase the state as an attractive destination for investment, Singh during an October 2017 meeting had told a 50-member US delegation that Yogi Adityanath government's narrative is different from the previous governments.
With the tagline "US in UP", the state government had invited US firms to invest in the state and was now following up the move. The delegation, headed by Boeing, had visited the state under the aegis of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), which is committed to create the most powerful strategic partnership between the US and India and promote bilateral trade.
Singh said that taking a cue from 'Vibrant Gujarat', the idea of 'US in UP' has been mooted to display the state's "tremendous investment potential" in chemicals, petrochemicals, cement, gems, pharmaceuticals, textiles and engineering sectors.
