By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : After the huge success of Emerging Kerala, an investor conference organised in Kochi, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Tuesday announced a global agriculture meet next year to improve farm practices in the state and encourage plantation and organic farming.
Addressing reporters here after the weekly cabinet meeting, Chandy said the Global Agro Meet-2013 will be held in September at Kottayam.
“This would be one where leading experts in agriculture and allied sectors will get together to see how best the agriculture (sector) in the state can be taken forward matching with the latest trends. The meeting would also look into aspects like horticulture, plantation sectors, organic farming and similar areas,” said Chandy.
Elaborating on the Emerging Kerala meet, he said three new committees have been set up to usher development, which includes an Investment Promotion Council (headed by the chief minister), Investment Clearance Board (headed by the chief secretary) and a Committee for Policy initiatives and legal changes (headed by Finance and Law Minister K.M. Mani).
“All the proposals that we received will be vetted by the concerned departments and it would be taken forward by them. The Sea Plane project saw 58 companies expressing their interest for it and we have decided that this project will become live in January 2013,” he said.
“We will see that no rules of the land are by-passed and the biggest concern raised by the investors who came is the inordinate delay in clearances and it’s for that the three new committees are being set up,” said Chandy.
He also said that “a needless controversy” had surfaced in the media over the Volkswagen proposal.
“They did meet up with me before the Emerging Kerala meet and they were also present at the meet. They are going ahead with plans to set up a Rs.2,000 crore assembly unit,” said Chandy.