Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Jan 19: Karnataka chief minister (CM) B S Yediyurappa on Sunday January 19 left for Davos in Switzerland at 10.25 am from here to take part in World Economic Forum summit. He will be spending the next six days there.
Yediyurappa is accompanied by large and medium industries minster, Jagadish Shettar, chief secretary of Karnataka, Vijay Bhaskar, additional chief secretary, E V Ramana Reddy, principal secretary, Gaurav Gupta, chief minster's secretary, Dr S Selvakumar, commissioner for large and medium industries, Gunjan Krishna, political adviser to the CM, M B Marankal, and special officer to CM, K P Rudrappayya.
The CM will take a flight to Dubai and reach Davos from there via Zurich international airport.
The Karnataka delegation led by Yediyurappa will participate in the World Economic Forum's annual summit being held on Monday January 20. Thereafter, the CM and the officers will hold meetings with global investors in an effort to attract investments in the state. The CM will return here on January 24.
"The chief minister will be participating at the 5-day WEF as part of the Indian delegation led by union commerce minister Piyush Goyal to showcase the state and seek investment," said additional secretary P Ravikumar told IANS.
"Though the chief minister will showcase the state at a special session 'Invest Karnataka' on January 22, he will also attend the WEF opening ceremony and inaugurate the state pavilion on Monday," Ravikumar said.
Yediyurappa will hold bilateral meetings with chief executives of global firms over the next three days and see a presentation by the WEF's advanced manufacturing head.
"He will interact with WEF board member, managing director and its South Asia head, and meet CXOs of companies to woo them to invest in Karnataka," Ravikumar said.
The state delegation will also hold separate meetings with Dassault Aviation, LuLu group, NEC, Denso Corporation and Novo Nordisk.
The CM said he will hold interaction with 38 investors and industrialists at the World Economic Forum meet in a bid to woo investments into Karnataka. He expects good amount of investment to flow into the state because as the outcome of the discussions. "We will extend facilities and support to industrialists and investors. These efforts will result in added employment opportunities," he said.
At the same time, he said that Karnataka is better placed economically even though the world is gripped by economic slowdown. He said he would be assisted by Jagadish Shettar in the task.
Ministry Expansion
About the expansion of his ministry that has been in limbo since long, Yediyurappa said that he has already discussed the issue with national president of the party, Amit Shah, and that the ministry expansion will happen once he returns to the city from Davos.
The CM termed the media reports which have painted a gloomy picture about the ministry expansion as outright false. "There are no hitches for the ministry expansion. It will happen once I come back by the end of this week," he asserted.
With IANS inputs