From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Jan 22: World leader in aerospace and security, Lockheed Martin Company’s Executive Vice President Richard Ambrose has promised Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa of his plans to visit Bengaluru soon to explore the possibilities of his Company’s investing in the State and also take up Research and Development activities.
The Chief Minister, who is on day three of his visit to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum summit, presented the Karnataka scenarios on aerospace and global security systems and said 400 of the top 500 Fortune companies have their presence in the State and Karnataka would provide an ideal investment opportunity.
State Chief Secretary T M Vijayabhaskar, who is accompanying the Chief Minister along with State Large and Medium Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar, said Karnataka had the best eco-system for aerospace industries and multicore processor units.
`The infrastructure facilities and investment opportunities along with the best professional talent and manpower would help Lockheed Martin the harness the State’s industrial potential and get good investment opportunities,’’ he said.
Another investor, Denso, a global automotive component manufacturer, also held a meeting with the Karnataka delegation with the company’s Executive Vice President Hiroyuki Wakabasyi said the company already had an excellence and research centre in Delhi and would consider Bangalore in its expansion plans in South India.
Denso already has a unit in collaboration with Kirloskar at Nelamangala with a workforce of over 400.
Novo Nordisk, a Danish company pioneer in drugs manufacture has come out with a proposal to supply diabetic drugs to patients through health department at an affordable price with Novo Nordisk President and CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen planning to take up educative programmes for the diabetic patients who have various stages of disease and work in tandem with the Karnataka government.
“If the government agrees we will provide diabetic drugs at affordable prices to the group of people selected by the state government in addition to making them more intelligent in handling this disease, we will also educate the people on its prevention, keep it under control and how to tackle it if it once afflicts,’’ he said.
Yediyurappa said the State Government is ready to take company’s help in tackling this diabetic menace. Chief secretary T M Vijayabhasker said he will look forward to have a fruitful dialogue with the company experts on the issue. “We are keen to help the diabetic patients, particularly the poor who cannot afford drugs,’’ he said.
Overall, the day three turned out to be quite fruitful for the State with concrete investment promises from some of the top companies, including Dassault Systems, Arcelor Mittal, Baharat Forge, Loockheed Martin, Lulu group and Novo Nordisk.
The Chief Minster assured all the potential investors that the State Government would go out of the way in resolving all their issues and clear all their hurdles to make the investments a reality. “I am serious on this score and my officers will work over time to facilitate your investments,’’ he declared.
Dassault Systems 3DS, which already has a presence in Bengaluru, came with an assurance from the group Vice President Florence Verzelen that she willinitiate measures to set up two “centres of excellence,’’ one at around Bengaluru and another in mofussil district.
“We will train nearly 2000 youth in each centre every year who will be ready to take up the skilled jobs in big companies. ``We will also train the engineering graduates and our investment is around a million Euros on these centres.
When the chief minister pointed out to her the growing demand for youth trained in aerospace and defense production techniques with Bengaluru becoming a hub of defense accessories, she responded positively.
Global steel major Arcelor Mittal’s Laxmi N Mittal, who attended the dinner hosted by CII last night which chief minister Yediyurappa attended and met the chief minister again on Wednesday at Karnataka pavilion and discussed about the Company’s interest to invest in Karnataka where he already has 3000 acres of land at his disposal In Bellary district.
Pointing out that the permission given by previous BJP government headed by Yediyurappa in 2010 to start a steel plant, he said the project has run into troubled water for various reasons and urged the Chief Minister to sort out the issues at the earliest.
Lulu Group Chairman Yusuf Ali said he would initiate measures to invest Rs 2000 crore in Karnataka in logistics field.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath also had a breakfast meeting with Yediyurappa and discussed collaboration between the two states.