With the theme of building people, building north and building India, the Confederation of Indian Industry(CII), northern region has chalked its plan for 2008-09. Primarily CII will execute intra-state infrastructure development programmes to facilitate trade in eight states falling in north. To give a shape to its plans the confederation is already in talks with various state governments.
Elaborating on CII?s vision for a common economic zone in the north, the newly elected Salil Singhal, chairman, CII northern region and chairman of Secure Meters Limited stated strengthening of infrastructure, free movement of goods and sharing of best practices across various states would create new synergies across the region.
?CII had convened a meeting with Prem Kumar Dhumal, chief minister, Himachal Pradesh where we came to know about important announcements like Construction of Parwanoo Barotiwala Nalagarh Ghanauli road, Baddi Chandigarh road, Pinjore airport Chandigarh road, Four laning of Pinjore Nalagarh road, strengthening of power infrastructure, providing of medical facilities and opening of medical college and upgrade of Baddi as Tehsil?, Singhal said.
?CII?s meeting with Ramesh Inder Singh, chief secretary, Punjab focused on the development of the Attari border, Rail Link from Makhu to Patti and Freight Corridor from Ludhiana to Amritsar. The CII delegation?s also met Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to talk on road connectivity of major areas with major roads, T&D losses in the Power sector and Convention Centre?, he said.
There are 2,216 members registered with CII from Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir.
To strengthen the small medium sectors the confederation has also established six clusters for competitiveness including munjal showa cluster, Faridabad and Gurgaon, FSIA cluster in Faridabad, UNDP cluster in Mandi Gobindgarh, bicycle cluster in Ludhiana, Handtools cluster in Jalandhar. ?Seeing the good response from these clusters we will be adding six more clusters including Mohali, Amritsar and Ludhiana?, Singhal informed.
CII had recently facilitated a study on labour reforms at state level, which covered northern states too. It was carried out by International Management Institute, Delhi and had come with various suggestions. These recommendations have been put across to the chief minister of Haryana in a bid to foster a congenial climate for attracting investment, promoting enterprise and entrepreneurship. These suggestions included various aspects of labour policy like the factories act, minimum wages act, shops and establishment acts, industrial disputes act, contract labour act and security aspect.