CM’s Japan Visit: Fuji Soft Proposes To Open ‘Centre of Excellence’ In Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: In view of huge potential that Odisha offers in the field of IT and ITeS, Japan’s Fuji Soft Group has proposed to open a “Centre of Excellence” in Bhubaneswar.

The company came up with the proposal during the one-on-one meeting of its representatives with a high-level delegation led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in Tokyo on Friday.

Fuji evinced interest in Bhubaneswar as the city has earned a name for the steady supply of software engineers and skilled workforce in the IT & ITeS sector. It has been a happy hunting ground for all the marquee labels who are already present in the state.

Besides Fuji Soft, the Odisha delegation met representatives of several companies including NYK Lines, NITKAL and Sumitomo Group on the third day of their visit to Japan.

Keeping the skill development initiatives of the state in view, NITKAL (Nihon-UTKAL) has tied up with Odisha University of Technology & Research (OUTR) to set up a dedicated skill development centre in the state to cater to the huge demand for trained work force in Japan. NITKAL (Nihon-UTKAL) is also continuing its dialogue with IIIT for establishing a dedicated Japan centric centre for skill development in the relevant field.

Logistics and storage for the new sunrise sector of green hydrogen and green ammonia continues to attract a large amount of traction. Keeping in line with these modern initiatives, 2 stalwarts in its field, met the Odisha delegation.

The NYK Lines (Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha) evinced interest in setting up dedicated shipping lines, starting from the port-of-call Paradeep/Gopalpur/Dhamra to transport the green ammonia to the countries from Southeast Asia to Japan.

Sumitomo Corporation, a global fortune 500 company, evinced interest in creating tankage and storage facilities for the green hydrogen and green ammonia sector. They are zeroing on in Gopalpur, which, with its, SEZ located just next door, happens to be an ideal location for the same.

The Chief Minister instructed all the officials to create a roadmap for all these investments in the sunrise sector and create timelines to achieve a quick turnaround for all the proposals received.

The delegation included Minister of Industries, MSME, and Energy; chief secretary; principal secretary, Industries department; principal secretary, E&IT department; secretary to CM; secretary, Sports and Youth Services, and Managing Director, IPICOL.