The Hindu Business Line : ‘State must seek Central funds to develop food parks’

Bangalore, Sept. 17 The Bangalore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCIC) has asked the Karnataka Government to urge the Centre to allocate funds for the development of food parks in the State.

The BCIC said these steps are necessary as a run-up to the Global Investors’ Meet scheduled to be held here on January 11-12, 2010.

BCIC member of the taskforce for agri and food processing, Mr Murali Ganesan, said the Government should:

* Pursue with the Centre “for allocation of sanctioned amount for development of food parks at Malur, Bagalkot, Hiriyur and Jeevargi, which have been identified already.”

* Create awareness on the six food parks that the Government plans to develop in the State at Rural Bangalore, Tumkur, Davanagere, Shimoga, Belgaum and Bijapur.

* Instruct the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB0 to acquire land at the earliest to enable Food Karnataka Ltd to showcase land availability to investors.

* “Ensure comprehensiveness of food parks, which is critical,” said Mr Ganesan. There should be uniform implementation of the APMC Act model, which would provide a direct linkage to farmers and the market.

The Government should also encourage large investors to improve linkage chain for movement of agricultural products and commodities exchange.

* Ensure comprehensiveness of incentives — investment subsidy for food processing units set up outside Bangalore; export incentives for the food processing industry.

The State Government should ensure that farmers get financial support at low interest rates and especially for export-oriented products.

It may also consider giving subsidy for procuring seeds, manure and equipment.

The BCIC would also conduct two symposiums on Access to market and food safety laws during the global investors’ meet.

For tourism

* Identifying the huge opportunities that lie in the MICE (meetings, incentives, convention and exhibition) market.

“In order to tap into this huge market, the Government needs to focus on creating infrastructure to handle large convention groups such as convention centres, world-class hotel rooms and serviced apartments, large exhibition centres, etc,” said Mr Anil Chadha, BCIC member on the Tourism Taskforce.

Over 6,000 keys, including hotel rooms and serviced apartments, are being added in the next 3-5 years. Additional supply of hotel rooms would enable the MICE segment to leverage competitive hotel rates. Bangalore could be an ideal alternative destination option with source markets from other Asian countries.

* Tapping the huge potential that medical tourism offers.

* “Revive ‘Brand Bangalore’, with focus more on exploring opportunities by making Bangalore a leisure destination option,” said Mr Chadha. There is a huge potential for heritage walks, golf, amusement centres, wine tours, art, theatre, etc in the city.

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