Singapore President to visit Kerala soon: CM

Kochi, Apr 27 (UNI) Stating that the LDF Government in Kerala was not against inviting foreign investment, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said major business delegations from Singapore and Russia would visit the state soon.

While a business delegation from Singapore was expected before the visit of Singapore President S R Nathan, another high-level delegation from Russia was also expected soon, Mr Achuthanandan said at a seminar on 'Making Kerala the Hottest Investment Destination' here.

However, the government was not interested in inviting investment for the sake of investment alone, but for the betterment of the people's lives.

"Any investment that is against the environment or the people or is exploitative is not wanted," the Chief Minister said.

The government would sign an agreement next week with the Dubai Technology, E-commerce and Media Authority on setting up the 'Smart City' information technology hub in Kochi, he said.

A delegation of the Doha Bank, which had visited the state in November last year, had also identified medical tourism and information technology as good investment prospects, and had shown interest in opening its branch in Kochi, he said.

Having a dig at the previous UDF Government, which had dubbed the Smart City project as the 'last bus for securing the state's development', Mr Achuthanandan said while the UDF Government had promised to get Rs 50,000 crore investment after holding the Global Investors Meet (GIM), not even Rs 50 crore had come in as investments.

Apart from the Smart City project, the LDF Government was moving forward with the Vizhinjam International Container Transshipment Terminal project also.

The government had held a major investors meet recently at which several foreign and Indian investors had evinced interest in investing in the Vizhinjam Project, he said.

UNI