Bhubaneswar: A delegation from Odisha has explored collaboration opportunities with Asean and Japanese investors, while attending two investment meets held in New Delhi on Tuesday.

A member of the delegation, who returned to Bhubaneswar on Wednesday, said the response from the investors was "quite encouraging". Participating in the ASEAN-India Business and Investment Meet in New Delhi, the delegation told the potential investors that the state government would have investor-friendly policies and incentive framework to facilitate investments from the ASEAN region.

Besides being one of the most resource rich states of India and being the largest producer of steel, stainless steel and aluminium, Odisha has been a top performing state in the country in terms of achieving sustained high economic growth and has consistently been ranked amongst the top thre states in terms of live manufacturing investments, the delegation said. Odisha has been recognised by Government of India as a "champion state" for exports and a "leader" in implementation of business reforms.

The delegation also took part in the 42nd joint meeting of India-Japan Business Cooperation Committee in New Delhi and highlighted the investment opportunities offered in the six sectors identified as priority sectors by the state government - ancillary and downstream industry in metal sector; chemicals, plastics and petrochemicals; electronics manufacturing; food processing including seafood; textiles and apparel and tourism.

Addressing the investors at Asean summit, Odisha industries secretary Sanjeev Chopra said: "Odisha is growing faster than the national average. Recognised as the leader in implementation of business reforms, Odisha accounts for 7.5 per cent of total manufacturing investment made in India. Able and stable government, infrastructure-led industrial development, pioneering single-window clearance procedures, highly-skilled labour, sector-specific industrial clusters and low cost of doing business are some of the factors that are driving the industrial growth in the state."

"With a network of 10,000km of national and state highways and 2,540km of rail corridor connecting the hinterland of resource-rich regions to the largest deep-water ports of Paradip and Dhamra on the east coast, we have ensured easy access to the markets of Asean region while offering new opportunities to its investors," he added.

The investors were also informed about the key business reforms undertaken to facilitate the Ease of Doing Business in the state, including the recent launch of first of its kind single window portal for industries, GO SWIFT (Government of Odisha Single-Window Investor Facilitation and Tracking) which serves the investors during the entire investment life cycle.