IT special investment regions to be set up in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode

KOZHIKODE: Observing that Kerala has 'missed the bus' in the initial stages of IT development, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy today announced setting up of IT Special Investment Regions in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode.

"Besides this, another initiative of the government is the conceptualisation of CyberPark on the lines of Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram and Infopark and SmartCity IT project in Kochi," he told reporters here.

Special projects would be chalked out for IT development, specially for Malabar region in north Kerala, he said.

Chandy admitted there are limitations in investing in Kerala like acquisition of land, 'which is a major problem." However government would give more attention and priority for IT development, he said.

Noting that Kerala has a large number of high quality IT professionals, he said lakhs of them work in various cities across India."One-third of IT professionals working in various IT firms at Bangalore are from Kerala," Chandy said.

The Chief Minister was speaking after laying the foundation stone for a Software Development Building of UL CyberPark at nearby Nellikode.

Chandy rued that Kerala's share in national IT/ITes exports of Rs two lakh crore was only Rs 3,200 crore, compared to Rs 77,000 crore of Karnataka, which topped all states. "This is surprising considering the high standard of education in Kerala," he said.

Kerala should make full use of the potential in the IT sector to face the stiff competition among states and come out on top in this field, which is witnessing unprecedented development all over the country, he said.