MUMBAI, 15 December 2007 — After the successful launch of India’s first energy district — Energy City India — last year, the Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House (GFH) entered the Indian market with a bang.
GFH signed a wide-ranging agreement with the government of Maharashtra to facilitate the creation of a state-of-the-art Economic Development Zone just outside Mumbai on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
The agreement was signed by Peter Panayiotou, acting chief executive officer of GFH and V.K. Jairath, principal secretary (industries), government of Maharashtra at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Mumbai in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, GFH Chairman Esam Yousif Janahi and Maharashtra Minister of Industries Ashok Chavan.
Jairath, in his opening remarks, said the Economic Development Zone will cover an area of 1,600 acres of land and will attract a total investment of over $10 billion.
The economic zone will include Energy City India, Telecom City Mumbai, Software City Mumbai and Entertainment City Mumbai.
“Maharashtra is attracting huge investments from abroad and particularly from the Gulf countries. Gulf Finance House also showed confidence in Maharashtra because in just one year they came here from one project to four projects and will bring investment from $2 billion to $10 billion,” Jairath said.
On power shortage in the state, Jairath said “the Maharashtra government is working hard with various power projects to solve this problem and hopefully this will not become the hindrance for such big project.”
Janahi said “Mumbai is having international recognition and strategic location to bridge the gap and bring more investment from the Gulf countries.”
He said “GFH has already received the assurance of cooperation from the government of Maharashtra and I hope this project will be a huge success.”
Janahi added that “India’s economic growth is captivating and this project will add more vigor to it, bring more FDI (foreign direct investment) and will create more job opportunities for the local people,” saying “apart from the near 10 percent predicted sustained economic growth, we view India as a highly robust economy with extremely sound fundamentals.”
Deshmukh said “the agreement we signed today with GFH is the highest investment so far which is coming to Maharashtra. Energy City India was a starting point but it has energized so much that it has converted into telecom, software and entertainment.”
He added that “because of Maharashtra’s liberal and investor-friendly policies, the flag of investment will fly very high and we will maintain our No. 1 position in the country.”
Chavan said “the decision of Gulf Finance House to expand the scope of project by continuing further investment in Maharashtra is an important milestone. The investment of this magnitude will definitely act as one of the catalysts for economic development of Maharashtra.”
Chavan also said “we expect that this project will create opportunities for at least 300,000 jobs.”
Panayiotou said “the specific business sectors that the economic development zone will focus on such as energy, software and telecom have emerged as key drivers within the Indian economy, adding that “India is already one of the largest energy markets in the world with a rapidly rising consumption rate.”
Since its establishment in 1999 in Bahrain, GFH has launched several infrastructure development and investment projects in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, India, Germany, Spain, Egypt, Morocco, China, US, UK and France.