Push For Investment Ahead Of Polls, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik Meets Nippon Steel Honchos In Tokyo

Tokyo/Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who is on a business tour of Japan, met Nippon Steel president Eiji Hashimoto at Tokyo on Tuesday to discuss avenues of collaboration between Nippon Steel and the Odisha government.

The meeting assumes significance since AMNS India, a joint venture of Arcellor Mittal and Nippon Steel, has signed two MoUs with Odisha to establish two steel mills and early commissioning of these projects can generate direct jobs for 28,000 people.

In 2021, Odisha government inked a pact with AMNS India for a 12 million tonne per annum (MTPA) integrated steel plant in Kendrapada district with an investment of Rs 50,000 crore, which it plans to expand to 24 MTPA by investing another Rs 50,000 crore at a later stage. While 8000-acre land of land has been identified for the project, a feasibility study is under way.

A month after the Make in Odisha conclave in December last year, the Odisha government approved the proposal of ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AMNS) India Ltd to set up a 7 MTPA steel plant in Jagatsinghpur at an investment of Rs 38,000 crore.

AMNS India currently has a 12 MTPA pellet plant at Paradip, which is the country’s largest single location pellet complex, an eight MTPA beneficiation facility in Keonjhar and a 250-km slurry pipeline from Keonjhar to Paradip.

Apart from discussing the projects in the pipeline, the Odisha government is scheduled to sign another MoU with AMNS for setting up of a high-performance gymnastics centre at Kalinga Stadium.

After arriving in Tokyo this morning, the CM had conveyed his appreciation of the warmth and hospitality extended by the Japanese government and people towards the Odisha delegation and expressed hope that the visit would strengthen cultural ties between the two nations. Japan was a country partner in the Make-In-Odisha conclave-2022.

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Later in the day, Industries Minister Pratap Keshari Deb, Chief Secretary P K Jena and senior officers held discussions with leaders from Marubeni Corporation and Avaada Energy on opportunities in green hydrogen and green ammonia sectors in Odisha. The Minister briefed them on the “state’s policy ecosystem and infrastructure to support these projects”.

The CM is scheduled to have one-on-one meetings with Japanese companies on Wednesday.  The state government will also host the Odisha Business Meet 2023, which is expected to be attended by over 200 industrialists and investors from across Japan and the Indo-Pacific region. The CM will address the investors and showcase the vast existing and emerging business opportunities in Odisha. In the evening, he will hold an interactive meeting with the Odia Diaspora in Japan, an official release said.

The following day, the state delegation will make a factory visit to the Kimitsu Steel Works and the R&D centre of Nippon Steel Corporation.

According to the Chief Minister’s Office, the delegation will also hold a round-table discussion in Kyoto on opportunities for collaboration between Japan and Odisha in the tourism sector, focusing on Buddhist and eco-tourism related sites in the state.  A business delegation from Odisha, representing steel, aluminium, textiles, food and sea-food processing, green hydrogen and green ammonia sectors, is also accompanying Naveen.

This is CM’s third official overseas trip in his 23-year rule and is being seen as an attempt to give a push to investment in Odisha head of the 2024 twin polls.