Naveen Patnaik Wraps Up Japan Visit, To Arrive In Odisha Via Bangkok Today

Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who had been on a weeklong business tour of Japan since April 4, will return to Odisha via Bangkok on Tuesday.

“He is likely to arrive here by 7 pm,” informed Industries Minister Pratap Keshari Deb, who had accompanied the CM to Japan.

According to sources, Naveen left Osaka this morning after wrapping up his Japan visit. Nikhilesh Giri, a 2002-batch IFS officer and a native of Mayurbhanj district, is Indian Consul General in Osaka-Kobe, Japan.

On the first day of the trip, Naveen had met Nippon Steel president Eiji Hashimoto to discuss avenues of collaboration between Nippon Steel and the Odisha Government during the meeting in Tokyo. “The Odisha government had inked a pact with AMNS India, a joint venture of Arcelor Mittal and Nippon Steel, for a green field steel plant at Mahakalapada in Kendrapada district with 23 MTPA production capacity and a 7 MTPA steel plant in Jagatsinghpur at an investment of Rs 38,000 crore also has the government nod,” the minister said.

“The visit aimed at accelerating these projects and we are hopeful of early start following the meetings,” he said, adding that the government is working on mission mode.

The delegation had one-on-one meetings with potential investors the same day and hosted a business summit in Tokyo and invited Japanese investors to the state. Odisha also entered into an agreement with Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel India to set up High Performance Centre (HPC) in gymnastics in Bhubaneswar.