Panaji, June 19 (TNN): The Goa cabinet on Wednesday approved the much-awaited Goa investment policy that hopes, among other things, to create 50,000 jobs and to facilitate 25,000 crore of new investments into Goa in the next five years.
Chief minister Manohar Parrikar said the investment policy seeks to promote non-polluting projects in industry, tourism, information technology and the health sector. "The main crux of the investment policy is the formation of the investment promotion board. The government will issue an ordinance to that effect in the next two or three weeks," Parrikar said.
The policy also aims at providing high quality logistics infrastructure to industries, providing 24x7 high-quality power supply and quality core infrastructure to industries, using innovative and socially acceptable mechanisms to make land available for industrial development and setting up an investment promotion board.
Parrikar said the investment promotion board will be the nodal authority for investments with the following conditions; investments of over 5crore, required area is equal to or above 3,000 square meters and the project is classified under the red or orange category as per Goa state pollution control board guidelines.
He said investments of less than or equal to Rs 5 crore and not meeting any of the criteria above can approach a dedicated sub-committee headed by the concerned minister to be set up within the investment promotion board.
Parrikar said that the investment promotion board will be a fully-empowered statutory body, headed by a chief executive officer and supported by a team. The board will be non-executive and include nine members from the industry.
The chief minister will be the chairperson of the board, the deputy chief minister will be joint chairperson, the industries minister the vice-chairperson, and the tourism minister and information technology minister will be members of the board.
The board will meet on a fortnightly basis.
The chief executive officer of the board will be an industry professional. The CEO will be selected by a committee which would comprise of the principal secretary (industries), and representatives selected from industry associations of Goa.
The investment promotion board will provide and facilitate approvals from the Goa government and its agencies. The board will also assist in getting clearances from the central government. The role of the board will include review (approval/rejection) of investment proposals, draft approval process, guidelines and standard operating procedures for new investments, appoint and manage the satellite expert consultant; facilitate approvals for investors to set up their units in Goa, etc.