I am happy to announce that today we are going to sign an MoU with M/S: POSCO for setting up a steel plant at Paradeep of 12 million tones per annum. The investment in the project will be of the order of US$ 12 billion which is equivalent to Rs.51,000 crores. This will be the biggest FDI in India. Therefore, this occasion is indeed a historic one.

The project is expected to provide employment to 13,000 persons directly and another 35,000 persons indirectly after it achieves its full capacity. During the period of construction, it is expected to provide employment to nearly 19,000 persons everyday at the peak of the activities.

The State is expected to earn revenue of Rs.700-800 crores every year by way of tax, cess etc., directly from the project.

We hope this investment would bring in much larger investments from Korean and other foreign companies as down-stream industries so that much greater value addition can take place within the State of Orissa. I would expect the Company to consciously promote ancillary industries in the small and medium sector by suitably guiding the entrepreneurs of Orissa.

The project is going to come up in ecologically sensitive areas in tribal and coastal tracts. I expect the company to adopt international standard of safeguards for environmental protection. I also expect the company to take adequate rehabilitation measures in respect of the persons being displaced by the project and take care of development of the peripheral areas around the mines and the plant.

Orissa is on threshold of rapid industrialization. The Government of Orissa has already entered into MoUs with 36 companies for a capacity of 35.7 Million Tonnes of steel. With the MoU with POSCO, the total capacity would go upto 47.7 million tones per annum. This is more than the total production of Steel in the whole of India today. The total investment involved in all these MoUs is Rs. 1,18,000 crores. With all these factories coming into production, the industrial scenario of Orissa will undergo a sea change. The ancillary and down stream industries are expected to further the process and provide employment to many persons of the State apart from much more revenue to Government. In addition to the Steel Investors, large companies have shown interest in manufacture of Aluminium and Stainless Steel. The IT sector is looking up and soon we will be reaching an export figure of Rs. 1000 crores from this sector. Steps are being taken to build up the infrastructure for promotion of tourism in a big way. The runway expansion of Bhubaneswar Airport is in progress and is expected to be completed in about 6 months. Wide bodied aircrafts may then land in Bhubaneswar and help promotion of International Tourism. Two more ports, one at Dhamara and the other at Gopalpur, are also on the anvil which will provide vital gateways for International trade. The Government of Orissa welcomes investments from within the country and abroad in all these emerging sectors. I am thankful to Government of India for agreeing to support the State of Orissa in developing its road and rail infrastructure to assist these developments.

With all such investments, Orissa will become one of the leading industrial states of our country.