US Companies Evince Interest in Jewar Airport: Minister

Lucknow, May 9 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Sidhartha Nath Singh, who was on a five-day visit to the US, today said many US companies have expressed interest in the upcoming international Jewar airport.

Speaking to reporters here after returning from the US, the minister said, the state is "heading towards Global Investor Summit".

Singh said that various companies, including the Boeing, showed interest in making a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) centre at Jewar airport. Similarly, VT System evinced interest in having an MRO unit in Meerut.

He also claimed that US officials said this type of representation of UP had never happened in the past.

"This is the first such planned and structured visit of a delegation to the US. The UP government in the past one year has already brought industrial policy and to support it, we also came up with different sectoral policies like IT, agriculture and MSME. We went there with full preparation," he said.

Another major point, which was raised in Washington DC was of Indo-US strategic partnership and Indo-Pacific understanding, Singh added.

Terming UP as the backbone of India, the minister, who is also UP government spokesperson, said, "If the US wants to be successful with India, it has to forge a strategic partnership with UP. In this way, UP is the first state of the country, which has put forward the foreign affairs policy by linking it with UP. It was widely appreciated".

Singh also informed that at a meeting with Stanford University, it was decided to ink an MoU with the UP government in combating Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome. They also assured that they will collaborate with the state on traffic management, and undertake research to decongest cities.

"Stanford University also told us that they did not want to come with UP in the past. The reason given was that the response of the (earlier) state government was not very practical," he said, adding that a diaspora of IIT-Kanpur and IIT-BHU want to possibly help us in Startup India and Startup UP," the minister said.

IT companies like Intel also expressed interest to set up a data centre in Noida and Greater Noida.

"Chairperson Oracle (India) Aslesha Khandparkar evinced interest in establishing Oracle Academy in Varanasi. Similarly, Sanjit Singh Dang, who is the investment director of Intel Capital, showed interest in establishing a start-up centre along with IIT Kanpur," Singh added.

Besides, Amazon also evinced interest in the One District, One Product scheme.

"If ODOP gets a platform like Amazon, then it can help our nearly 5 crore artisans in enabling their products to reach any part of the world," he said.

To a question about the possible dates for the global investor summit, Singh said, "The dates have not been finalised yet, since the event will be held next year. Other countries which are being targeted are South Korea, France, UK and Germany. Industry minister Satish Mahana has already visited UAE".

When asked about investments expected to arrive in UP, the minister said that they are are optimistic people and feel that from UP's point of view it was a positive and motivating visit. "The state government has made preparations to implement MoUs worth Rs 50,000 to Rs 70,000 crore."

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