PANAJI
With focus on reintroducing the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) model and maximizing the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), a team from Goa Khadi and Village Industries Board is all set to visit Gujarat, later this month.
Speaking to The Goan, Khadi Board chairman Antonio Vaz confirmed that team of officials from the Board will soon be visiting Gujarat to explore their industrial and investment model.
Without ruling out plans for revival of SEZ, Vaz said that the team will be looking into various aspects to promote investment through green projects in the State.
The SEZ project in the State was originally envisaged way back in 2007 across 38.4 lakh sq mtrs of land before it was scrapped in 2008 following public outcry.
With the Central government laying thrust on SEZs to boost trade and employment, the State government has decided to reintroduce SEZs through the Goa Khadi and Village Industries Board.
When contacted, Board CEO Johnson Fernandes too said that the team will visit Gujarat to study their model of Khadi industry and how we can maximize MSMEs.
“Their Khadi model would be studied for revival of our Khadi board,” he said while refusing to speak on SEZ.
While the detailed plan has been kept under wraps by the government, highly placed sources confirm that with the State looking forward towards becoming an investment destination, the SEZs are set to make a comeback with focus on promoting green-sustainable industrial projects.
State is expected to revive three notified SEZs. As per Centre government, Goa has still three notified SEZs- Cipla’s Meditab Specialities- from whom the government recently took back the land and Raheja’s IT/ITeS SEZ and Peninsula Pharma’s bio-tech SEZ- both who surrendered their land in 2019-20 following settlement.
“They are yet to be de-notified by the centre,” sources said.
