1. Meeting with World Bank PSLO network :
IDEA's team had been invited to the World Bank, New Delhi to discuss possibilities of anchoring its PSLO network in Gujarat. At the first instance the W.B. felt that it would have to host the PSLO's in the capital at one of the national agencies such as FICCI or CII but it could add spokes in regional centers to make a total of 6 or so PSLO's for India. IDEA had volunteered its presence in states such as Gujarat & Uttranchal to start. IDEA had met & interacted with a delegation brought in by the PSLO from Belgium. The delegation had been brought in by his Excellency, Crown Prince Philippe & involved over 100 companies including those interested to invest in Power Sector (a European leader); hotels etc IDEA also interacted with another delegation brought by a former counsel general, Austria & were headed by the Austrian President.
2. Meeting with Ministry of Finance/ Ministry of Industry New Delhi & other regional investment promotion agencies in Kerala & Uttranchal :
IDEA's team had visited the Ministry of Finance, GOI, New Delhi to explore a strategy for implementation & funding for its national efforts. IDEA met with the India Development initiative, and was informed that this was modeled on the lines of US AID & an outward looking initiative to start. IDEA also was informed that the Ministry of Finance had formed a national investment commission headed by Mr. Ratan Tata as its chairman & with Mr .Deepak Parekh CMD, HDFC & Mr. Ashok Ganguly as members. Media reports have indicated that the commission has identified two sector chemicals including pharma & diamonds as thrust area's. IDEA has shown its willingness to work with the national investment commission via representations to the finance & commerce ministry. It has also devised an innovative 5 step program to bring investment promotion activities to the regional level, based on the Gujarat model so as to form a national fabric for investment promotion. Meetings with Uttranchal & Kerala govts have already taken place. Letters are also being written to state investment promotion bodies in Rajasthan, MP, and Maharashtra where references are available.
3. Development Gateway prize: IDEA has participated in a $ 100,000 ICT for development prize competition of the Development Gateway, a World Bank supported agency in Washington. IDEA has used extensively ICT to set up regional networks for business matchmaking & investment promotion work. IDEA was nominated by former MIGA staff & its nomination endorsed by indent, GCCI & the State Bank of India. The outcome of the same would be known shortly, typically over 150 applications are received and an eminent jury has already been nominated by Development Gateway for this purpose.
4. Incubation of new associates & network partners: IDEA has been rapidly expanding its investment promotion network. Some of the associates added included a former director of ITC who is an expert in paper industry, a former managing director of SONY media who headed a national broad band expert committee & is an expert in ICT industry & a national expert on roads who had recently implemented 2000 km of projects in Central India making a total of over two dozen associates & around 40 including those from the outside working for other agencies. IDEA also has extended a cooperation arrangement with a leading franchising network in India for Ahmedabad its home city. It has also extended a cooperation arrangement with a US based global franchising network for inward & outward work. IDEA also had meetings with a global accounting major who is keen to establish a presence in Gujarat. IDEA has suggested that it lends its experts for business development & joint implementation in areas such as audit, tax etc. & for cooperation in investment promotion & investment baking activities where lead sharing has started.
5. Education sector work: IDEA in consortium with a leading management institute & its sister firms E3 foundation & Law combine made a pitch to an upcoming energy management institute in Gujarat. IDEA had given a proposal for a) financing the institute by a public sector bank interested in education b) management contract for 1 year executive education diplomas in energy management that are being duly considered by the institute. The other's pitching for the mandate were some of the leading firms in the country & the proposal would have to be duly followed up for a fruitful outcome.
6. Visit to Railways. IDEA at the best of India's largest public sector bank & its investment bank, on introduction of the Finance Ministry, GOI had visited the special purpose vehicle of the Railways to explore financing & investment promotion supports for its railway up gradation projects in Western India. The same would be carried forward in the next quarter.
7. Front Line Lead Generation: IDEA has continued to work as a front line investment promotion organization for lead generation. Some of the leads included Chinese Waste management, Biodiesel, Wind Energy, reputed Malaysian companies interested in civil engineering such as road construction & trading, energy etc. IDEA also met with a laeding Gujarat based trading company to evolve a strategy fro cooperation & started sharing information from its network in area's of mutual interest. IDEA already has a cooperation arrangement with one of the largest Japanese sogo shosha's & presented trade leads to it from some of India’s largest companies in coal, bauxite and agro commodities. IDEA has also been following up announcements of the Vibrant Gujarat worth Rs. 100,000 cr.
8. Cooperation with another Japanese sogo shosha: IDEA has strengthened its program for cooperation with Japanese sogo shosha's by receiving a lead for an LPG terminal from another large Japanese trading company interested to invest in this sector, being a global leader in LPG business transportation. The proposal is under due diligence.
9. Visit of a FRENCH OIL & GAS major to Gujarat: IDEA hosted the visit of the president, India operations & the exploration manager of a reputed multinational French oil & gas company interested to participate in bidding blocks in Gujarat under the NELP V. The company is keen to partner reputed companies for on land blocks either in the NELP program or farm into existing on land blocks with a particular interest in the Cambay basin where it does not have a presence yet in India. A specific proposal was left with a leading PSU in Gujarat for consideration.
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India Development & Environment Agency,
IDEA, a new investment promotion initiative
A 1/8, Tirthjal, Satellite Ring Road,
Ahmedabad, 380 015.
Tel: ( 079) 2673 0005 (dir) Fax ( 079) 2630 9801
website www.ideagujarat.com
email idea@icenet.net Or invest@ideagujarat.com
Mobile 98240 17302
