— Saurabhbhai Patel, Minister of State, Industries (Independent Charge), Government of Gujarat

Saurabhbhai Patel, who also heads the civil aviation, mines and minerals, finance, energy and petrochemicals, cottage industries, and salt industries portfolios, talks about the sustained rise of Gujarat on India’s infrastructure map. An exclusive interview by Sandeep Menezes.

With Vibrant Gujarat once again a big success, what are your future plans for the state?
Under the visionary leadership of Hon'ble Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Gujarat is taking several steps for inclusive growth and sustainable development for the future. The government plans to initiate several programmes in collaboration with the private sector to advance further in improving the Human Development Index in the state.

The government plans to benefit the people of Gujarat through employment opportunities that will come up with the implementation of projects committed during the Vibrant Gujarat 2011 summit, apart from the significant contribution of these projects to the growth of the economy.

Gujarat has been at the vanguard of the white revolution through the cooperative movement in the milk sector, stupendous industrial growth over the last decade and, more recently, the phenomenal development of its power sector with stress on renewable sources of energy.

Going forward, Gujarat is planning a strong thrust and focus on the services sector, namely healthcare, tourism, IT/ITES etc. The growth of the services sector will have strong underpinnings in terms of robust infrastructure, superior quality of life, and policybased governance.

Investment commitments during Vibrant Gujarat were 0.66 lakh crore in 2003; 1 lakh crore in 2005; 4.6 lakh crore in 2007; 12.44 lakh crore in 2009; and estimated at 20.83 lakh crore in 2011. What has been the actual implementation rate?
The success rate achieved on the MoUs signed during the earlier Vibrant Gujarat Summits is very encouraging—59 per cent of MoUs signed in Vibrant Gujarat 2003, 61 per cent of MoUs signed in Vibrant Gujarat 2005, and 69 per cent of MoUs signed in Vibrant Gujarat 2007—have been either commissioned or are under implementation.

For the MoUs signed in Vibrant Gujarat 2009, within a short span of two years, 44 per cent of MoUs for large projects have been commissioned or are under implementation and 76 per cent of MoUs for MSME projects have been commissioned or are under implementation.

Gujarat is run more like a corporate organisation headed by a CEO rather than a CM. What lessons can other states learn?
The Hon'ble Chief Minister focuses on the welfare of the people of the state. He believes in the participatory approach of the common man in the work and activities of the government. There is a strong focus on e-governance by the government. Mr. Modi believes in 'Less Government, More Governance'.

Mr. Modi's vision is to make every individual and business grow global. At the same time, his dream is to make Gujarat a globally preferred place to live in and to do business.

The Vibrant Gujarat Summit, in specific, provides a great opportunity to the state to display its strengths, progressive stance, initiatives taken to improve governance, investor-friendly climate, and art and culture of Gujarat. The Summit not only gives local players an opportunity to interact with national and international players, but also with top government officials from various departments and sectors.

The state believes in a cooperative approach for the sustained overall economic growth of India—various states participated in the Vibrant Gujarat 2011 Summit to showcase their potential to a wide array of investors and stakeholders. Cooperation and mutual learning for the benefit of the country is what Gujarat aims for.

According to Assocham, Gujarat is the preferred investment destination with 52 per cent of the total investment of 10,493,602 crore for 20 states as on March 31, 2010. How was this achieved?
The state has adopted a proactive approach to support investors. We have created an investor facilitation portal to ensure investments are grounded timely and investors can monitor their investments. Gujarat has also been a pioneer in carrying out policy reforms viz. Industrial Policy 2009, Solar Policy 2009 etc. All these efforts have helped Gujarat achieve large investments.

The state petrochemical industry is likely to contribute over 75 per cent of India’s total production.
Gujarat has been aptly termed as the Petro Capital of India. Some of the largest petrochemical complexes of the country are currently in Gujarat. With planned expansion projects of many companies operating in the state, the leadership of Gujarat is expected to definitely go up. We are also focusing on the development of PCPIR in Dahej region. This will consolidate Gujarat's position as a petrochemical hub in the region.

Mining policies have failed to address environment concerns. Where does Gujarat stand?
Over the last few years, policy in Gujarat has increasingly focused on sustainable growth. Over the past year and in Vibrant Gujarat 2011 Summit, brainstorming sessions were organised during the seminar on mining, specifically to address ecological concerns in mining. Various steps and measures have been proposed by the stakeholders to ensure sustainable growth in mining.

Achieving ecological equilibrium is critical to the government’s approach to attracting investment in the sector. Mapping of mineral reserves in the state using techniques like GIS and periodic updation of those maps is the way ahead to take care of ecological concerns. These maps include forest cover area, uninhabited area, and ecologically and environmentally sensitive zones. Based on the above, an area can be designated as 'go zone' or a 'nogo zone' for mining industries to set up operations in those areas.

About 38 per cent of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor falls in your state. How will it change the industrial landscape of Gujarat?
Gujarat accounts for 62 per cent of total area in the Project Influence Area of the DMIC project. It will impact 18 out of 26 districts within the influence area. The major cities on DMIC corridor that which benefit are Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat. It is envisaged that one-third of total investment will be in Gujarat and will generate an estimated employment for 8 lakh people.

Amongst the various states falling within the DMIC influence area, Gujarat has been the most proactive in taking concrete steps to benefit from the DMIC development, including strong progress in development of Special Investment Regions (along with regulatory and legal framework), focusing on connectivity between the DMIC and existing industrial centres, and vigorously pursuing development of logistics hubs and warehousing centres along the DMIC.

What are your future initiatives to ensure investment flow?
As the Hon'ble Chief Minister remarked during the Vibrant Gujarat 2011 Summit, "Tomorrow is Today". Various initiatives have already been taken to continue on the growth path of industrial development. Apart from DMIC led developments, the other key focus area is "port-led development" implying development of integrated port cities along the 1,600-km coastline, ensuring connectivity of industrial centres with key ports for faster evacuation, and continued stress on all-round infrastructure development.

What are the types of industries that the state is trying to attract?
Besides the traditional strengths of Gujarat in petrochemicals and chemicals, pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery, textiles etc., the government is focusing on developing Gujarat as an automobile hub. Leveraging on the long coastline, shipbuilding and shipbreaking is another industry being focused on.