A warm welcome speech by Vijay Rupani kick started the 8th Vibrant Gujarat Summit at Mahatma Convention Centre in Gandhinagar, "once Tagore hall pre-2003" as recalled by Reliance Chairman, Mukesh Ambani. The two hour inaugural ceremony proceeding chaired foreign government delegates and industrialists from twelve partner countries namely Sweden, Poland, France. US, UK, Singapore, Rwanda, Denmark, Australia, Canada, Japan and Netherlands. The panel witnessed bigwigs from manufacturing industry, telecommunication and other industries within and outside India.
Among the prominent dignitaries are President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, Prime Minister of Portugal, Antonio Costa, PM of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, Deputy PM of Russia, Dmitry Rogozin, first Deputy PM and Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Poland, Poitr Glinski.
"Gujarat is one of the fastest growing states and I am proud to consider myself a Gujarati. I was glad I moved my factory to Gujarat," said Ratan Tata, Interim Chairman Tata Sons.
This time, the state expects to receive investment proposals more than ? 25 lakh crore.
"Our cumulative investment in Gujarat is ? 2,40,000 crore, of which ? 1,25,000 cr invested in past 4 years," said Mukesh Ambani in his speech at the inauguration ceremony.
Ambani also praised Prime Minister Modi for his brave steps to transform the Indian economy.
Anil Ambani spoke about the 150 crore investment by Reliance Foundation in Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University.
Adani announced that his group's investment in solar and wind will exceed ? 23,000 crore by 2021.
Toshihiro Suzuki mentioned, "The new plant for Suzuki automobiles will start operations from March 2017 and will be producing close to 7,50,000 units in India." He also added that Japan and India will together create Japan-India Institute for technical and soft skills, primarily for the manufacturing industry. This institute will provide training to 300 youths per year in technical trades and Japanese shop floor practices and is expected to start its first batch from August 2017.
Jomo Kenyatta, Prime Minister of Kenya invited foreign direct investment by India, stating, "We invite investments in transport, water energy, health, pharma, agriculture, tourism, information technology, banking, automotive and health in Kenya." He also talked about the blooming culture of entrepreneurship that both Kenya and India shares.
Almost all leaders emphasized on the importance of Make in India, Digital India, Skill India and their intentional interest to invest in all sectors of India to make a reality of NaMo's dreams.
Preceded by a loud cheer, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conversed in
Gujrati and English spelling out Government's strong commitment to continue economic reforms. "India has become the fastest growing major economy in the world. Despite the global slowdown, we have registered excellent growth. Today, India is a bright spot in the global economy. We are seen as the engine of global growth," he said.
CII and FICCI were the national partners of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2017.
