Yogi Adityanath to visit US in May, sell UP as investment destination

LUCKNOW: Yogi Adityanath is headed for the United States in May on his first trip as Uttar Pradesh chief minister where he is expected to engage with heads of leading companies and promote the state as an investment destination. The CM could visit Silicon Valley along with half a dozen American cities, hold roadshows and meet nonresident Indians from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar during the trip which includes neighbouring Canada.

UP health minister Siddharth Nath Singh told ET that he would be leading a team to the US in March to prepare the ground for the CM’s visit. The CM’s visit, he said, is being organised by the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), which had got Indian heads of nearly 20 US companies to Lucknow to meet Adityanath in October 2017.

“UP will be holding a Global Investors Summit in Lucknow in October. Ahead of that, the CM in May could visit six-seven US cities like New York, Washington, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and Chicago to meet business heads and encourage them to invest in UP,” Singh said. Adityanath, who has been to the US earlier as an MP, is expected to meet the heads of Boeing, Facebook, Adobe, Medtronic, Pratt & Whitney and Cargill during the trip.

“USISPF will be setting up industry interactions for the minister and hosting roadshows for the CM across the US in New York, Washington, Chicago and Silicon Valley. It will be an opportunity to showcase how UP is becoming more foreign investor friendly and attract US investors,” Nivedita Mehra, managing director of USISPF told ET.

The summit being planned by UP is modelled on the one started by Narendra Modi as Gujarat chief minister to attract foreign investors. Singh said prominent NRIs of UP will be invited to Lucknow during the summit to interact with business and industry leaders. During his US visit, the CM is expected to meet NRIs as well.

“The CM is very popular and as there is a large presence of Purvanchalis – from UP and Bihar – in the US, a community event could also be organised for the CM,” Singh said.

The trip, he said, will include a visit to Toronto and Vancouver in Canada after the Canadian High Commissioner recently met the CM in Lucknow. Singh said the state is also looking at countries such as Japan, UK and South Korea for investments. During the October visit of Indian heads of nearly two dozen US companies to Lucknow, the CM had told the delegation that his government was committed to make UP investment-friendly, ensure round-the-clock electricity and provide better road connectivity and a sound law and order atmosphere.

“UP is the biggest market in India with 22 cr population,” Adityanath had told the delegation, pointing to business opportunities in UP in areas such as power generation, development of infrastructure, smart cities development, electronics, IT and renewable energy. UP is also holding an investors summit for local companies in Lucknow in February.