Come and invest in Odisha: CM Patnaik urges UAE business leaders

Come and invest in Odisha: CM Patnaik urges UAE business leaders

UAE’s digital transformation strikes a big chord with the Indian leader

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. — Supplied photo

Published: Mon 27 Jun 2022, 10:40 PM

Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of eastern India’s mineral-rich state of Odisha, will hold an investors’ meet in Dubai on Wednesday. The event is jointly organised by the Odisha government and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).

Patnaik, 75, who has been the CM of Odisha since 2000, is on a 13-day tour of Italy and the UAE, to seek foreign investments.

He wants to showcase the tremendous investment opportunities available in Odisha to the business leaders in the UAE in sectors such as mining, metallurgy and metals, ancillary and downstream in metals, petroleum, petrochemicals and chemicals, agriculture, food and sea food processing, textiles and technical textiles, apparels and garments, port, airports, logistics and warehousing and renewable energy.

Odisha chief secretary Suresh Mohapatra; CM’s secretary VK Pandian; food and civil supplies secretary VV Yadav; industries secretary Hemant Sharma; and Resident Commissioner in New Delhi Ravi Kant are accompanying the CM on this trip.

Patnaik spoke with Khaleej Times ahead of the investors’ meet.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

How has life come full circle from author, socialite to a politician?

I’m extremely