Gujarat signs MoUs worth Rs. 30,000 cr with China.

The business delegation that accompanied the Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel to her recent China visit, today announced that the State will see two industrial parks being set up by Chinese developers, while several memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were signed for mutual cooperation and assistance.

The MoUs signed between the industrial extension bureau (iNDEXTb) and various companies in China and Hong Kong valued over Rs. 30,000 crore, which included Rs. 10,000 crore worth of MoU for setting up two industrial parks and Rs. 19,000 crore for smart city development.

Two major MoUs were signed by China Small and Medium Enterprise Investment Ltd (CSMEI) and iNDEXTb. 'There will be a textile park and a general industrial park near Sanand. However, the final location has not yet been decided,' said a government official here.

Also, the Gujarat delegation held discussions for establishing institutional relationships between Confederation of India Industry (CII), the China Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (CASME), and China Council for Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), a state government official informed here.

'The visit was fruitful and constructive. As against previous amity between the two countries, the three visits - two by Narendra Modi as Gujarat chief minister and the latest by chief minister Anandiben Patel has opened new avenues for mutual cooperation and support,' said Parimal Nathwani, group president (corporate affairs), Reliance Industries Ltd, who was a part of the delegation.

In all, 22 MoUs were signed across sectors like smart city, textiles, industrial parks, renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure development, affordable housing, pharmaceuticals, automotive, electrical engineering and logistics, wherein Chinese government agencies and business houses evinced interest of making investments in these areas in Gujarat.

The smart city is likely to come up on an area of 20 sq km. 'It could either be on a greenfield basis or the Chinese counterpart could assist us in developing an existing city like Gandhinagar or Ahmedabad into a smart city,' the official further stated.

On a sister cities basis, Guangzhou expressed interest in assisting Ahmedabad in several areas of its administrative and infrastructure bottlenecks such as waste water management and road construction.

'We are exploring Chinese assistance mainly for the waste water recycling. Ahmedabad, which has about 800 MLD of waste water, and can adopt some of the unique initiatives by Chinese cities,' said D Thara, municipal commissioner, Ahmedabad city.


HBL