State attracts $5.2 billion FDI in last one year: RV Deshpande

BENGALURU: Karnatakahas attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) of $ 5.2 billion plus in the last one year, industries minister RV Deshpande said on Tuesday. This, the minister said, makes the state the second best state in the country in terms of attracting FDI.
In the period from April 2000 to March 2017, Karnataka has attracted an FDI of $22.37, he said at a function in Bengaluru.

The state government, he said, has worked hard on ease of doing business (EoDB), and a series of administrative reforms have improved the business sentiment in Karnataka. "In the recent past, we have introduced key initia tives across five major areas of single window, land and utilities, industrial rel ations, pollut ion c ont rol and commercial taxes," the minister said.

As part of the ease of doing business, the government has made available information on the availability of plots in industrial areas. "We have created a new non-profit company "Invest Karnataka" to promote the state globally while Karnataka Udyog Mitra will continue to facilitate investments," he said.

There are also reforms on the labour front. There are efforts at the government of India level to amalgamate 44 Central laws into just four labour codes.

"Job creation is the gover nment's priority," the minister said. He said Karnataka has generated 13.91 lakh jobs in the last four years and is inching closer towards meeting the gover nment's target of creating 15 lakh jobs by 2019. "Between 2013-14 and 2017-18, Karnataka has generated 12.03 lakh jobs in the micro, small & medium enterprises (MSME) sector and 1.88 lakh jobs in the large industries sector.Another 5.79 lakh jobs are in the pipeline," he said.

While many governments around the world are grappling with low growth, Karnataka has been marching in the opposite direction with a $158.9-billion economy growing at 7.6% per annum, Deshpande said.