NewZNew (Chandigarh) : In a bid to draw a roadmap to improve Punjab’s ranking in the ease of doing business across different critical parameters, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), its MoU partner Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY), Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI), National University of Singapore (NUS) and Punjab Government would work together with a formal tripartite MoU in this regard expected to be entered into very soon.
Similar tripartite MoUs have already been signed with Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, with Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in progress as well. Plans and deliberations for a formal MoU with Punjab are moving at a rapid pace.
A CII delegation led by Mr S S Bhogal, Chairman, CII Punjab State Council, along with Professor Ramkishen S Rajan, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, and Mr Vincent Kwan, Research Assistant, LKY School of Public Policy, NUS, Singapore called on Mr Anirudh Tewari, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce, Punjab & Chief Executive Officer, Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion and Mr DK Tiwari, Additional CEO, Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion and their teams today to discuss the way forward on how to create an enabling environment which is conducive to the existing industry as also attracts new investments.
Both the officials expressed the keenness of the state government to be part of this unique initiative, considering that easing the business environment is critical for success of ‘Make in India’ campaign as well as to position Punjab as a preferred investment destination.
“To achieve this objective, both NUS and CII will conduct state level research across the parameters determining the Ease of Doing Business including (i) Starting a Business, (ii) Dealing with Construction Permits, (iii) Getting Electricity Connection, (iv) Land Acquisition and Registration of Property, (v) Getting Credit, (vi) Protecting Minority Investors, (vii) Paying Taxes, (viii) Trading Across Borders, (ix) Enforcing Contracts, (x) Resolving Insolvency, (xi) Labour Market Regulations, with particular emphasis on attractiveness to investors and business friendliness”, shared Mr S S Bhogal, Chairman, CII Punjab State Council.
A workshop on enhancing the Ease of Doing Business in Punjab was also organised by CII and LKY to learn about the bottlenecks and issues, if any faced by Industry and also the policy & regulatory changes with respect to promoting ease of doing business, especially for the existing Industry that can be recommended to the Government of Punjab.
“We would cover mainly four aspects in order to rank different states against each other viz state’s Macroeconomic condition, state’s competitiveness and investment attractiveness, manpower and financial requirements, quality of life etc. We would collate 1/3rd of the info from published content and State’s notifications and 2/3rd from the surveys of industry and government officials across different levels”, shared Professor Ramkishen S Rajan.
“To promote Make in India in true sense, it is critical that state governments get involved in it pro-actively, because a lot of regulations and procedural bottlenecks exist at the state level”, he added.
