Daijiworld's special correspondent

Panaji, Jun 7: The Goa cabinet on Monday approved the Goa Bio-tech Policy 2006, which rolls out a red carpet to the bio-tech industries to invest in the state.

"The State Government will give various incentives and ease the clearance to various bio-tech industries, under this policy," Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane told reporters here.

"Apart from the natural and location advantage offered by the State, for setting up biotechnology industries, the State Government will offer all the incentives to match incentives given by other States to attract Indian and global investments," Rane said.

The policy, formed by New Delhi-based Bio-tech Consortium India Ltd, aims to ensure an accelerated growth in all areas of this field including education, research and economic sectors covering healthcare, agriculture, industry, services, environment management and employment generation, he stated.

"The state government would develop a mechanism for active collaboration with the Central Government, so as to gain from the schemes and policies of the Centre in relation to the financial support, development of trade and other commercial networks," Rane said.

Rane said that the policy would encourage the development of economically viable Horticulture plants by clonal propogation, improvement of floriculture using macro and micro-propagation besides others.

Besides agricultural bio-technology, healthcare, industrial, environmetal and marine bio-technologies is given stress in the policy, the chief minister stated.

Under this policy, the State Government intends to promote bio-tech parks and would provide quality infrastructure to the industries, he said.