New Delhi, Nov 16 (IANS): The ninth edition of the Vibrant Gujarat summit would focus more on trade and commerce, along with investments, Manoj Kumar Das, Principal Secretary to the Gujarat Chief Minister, said on Friday.

The biennial investment promotion event will be held at state capital Gandhinagar during January 18-20, 2019 with the theme "Shaping the New India".

"We have changed our focus a little bit. As we are growing now we are not only focusing at investment in Gujarat, we are also talking about trade ... exports from Gujarat," Das said at the curtain raiser event here.

The focus areas for the upcoming summit would be "Industry 4.0", trade, commerce and exports, youth empowerment among others, Das added.

Inviting more investors and businesses to the state, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said:
"Whoever has started a business in Gujarat has been successful…it is a state with a guarantee of successful business."

Addressing the event, Rupani further noted that the investment summit has turned global in the past few years as discussions during the summit now also include "global issues and opportunities".

During the summit in January, the Chief Minister would present his vision for the state's development by 2022.

Regarding the steps taken for ease of doing business, Chief Secretary of the state, J.N. Singh said: "Under the GST regime, we are among the first states to roll out a well defined, transperant structure for incentives."

The last Vibrant Gujarat Summit in 2017 had 12 partner countries, along with 100 participating countries and 2,700 international delegates.