Industry captains eye business in the Valley

Mumbai, Jun 16 (UNI) A 100-member strong delagation, led by business body ASSOCHAM, from across the industry, will visit strife-prone Kashmir Valley in August to explore business potential, Videocon Group Chairman and President of the ASSOCHAM V N Dhoot told reporters here today.

''We feel the situation in Jammu and Kashmir has almost returned to normalcy and the time is conducive for the industry to explore more business opportunies there,'' Mr Dhoot said after presenting a report on India's aviation sector to Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel here.

''We as the only business body in the state have been, for a long time, focussing on Kashmir. We suggested the Union government to create a kind of export processing zone there, which has been accepted by the government,'' Mr Dhoot added.

Encouraged by the relative peace in the state, more than 100 pharmaceutical companies are in the process of setting up business units in the valley.

According to Mr Dhoot, the ASSOCHAM is also organising a 'Invest in Kashmir Conference' in the Valley shortly, which is likely to see the participation of a number of companies including Dabur and Nicholas Piramal.

According to ASSOCHAM, many of these companies have evinced keen interest for investment in Kashmir.

The industry, says ASSOCHAM, wants to focus investment in the tourism, handicrafts and also in the pharmaceutical sector. ''Our assessment is that definitely there is a surge in the tourist flow in the country as more than 10 lakh tourists are likely to visit Kashmir this year as against six lakh during the last year,'' Mr Dhoot added.

UNI