Ease of doing business : Piyush Goyal resolves Swiss firm’s land issue in 2.5 hours
NEW DELHI : Union Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Piyush Goyal resolved a complex land allocation issue for a major Swiss company during a live business conference, completing the process in just 2 hours and 34 minutes.
The intervention occurred at the 18th SWISSMEM Industry Day, where Goyal was addressing over 1,000 Swiss industry representatives and a delegation of 90 Indian companies as part of efforts to operationalise the India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA).
During morning discussions with Swiss company executives, a representative from Endress Hauser Flowtec AG, a precision engineering firm operating in Maharashtra for over two decades, raised concerns about land acquisition for expanding their manufacturing facility.
“When I was meeting with some of your industry persons earlier in the morning, I met a gentleman from Endress and Hauser,” Goyal told the conference audience.
“Endress and Hauser is a company working in India over the last 20 years since 2003. It’s grown significantly but wishes to grow further and they highlighted to me that they were in need of another 10 acres, about 40,000 square meters of land which is currently next to their plant but is a green zone.”
The company required the land, designated as a protected green zone, for expansion but faced bureaucratic procedures that typically take months to complete.
“At 11:33, I messaged the Secretary of Industry in Maharashtra, my home state, with his application and a couple of slides showing that he’s doing good work there,” Goyal announced to the conference.
“I’ve just received a reply at 2:07. How long back is that? I’ve lost track of time. At 2:07, so that’s just about 2 hours and a half hours, 2 and a quarter hours,” the Minister continued, as applause erupted from the audience.
The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) approved the land allocation and agreed to relocate the green zone to another area to accommodate the company’s expansion needs.
“Roughly around 40,000 square meters can be made available,” Goyal announced. “We’re just going to move that green – not that we are cancelling the green area, it’ll be shifted to another location so that Endress and Hauser can get the peace that they want. India can, India will deliver.”
The swift resolution served as a demonstration to potential Swiss investors about India’s approach to business facilitation. “This is a real-time example of quick government response and it served as a strong message that India can, and India will deliver,” Goyal stated.
The Minister used the moment to reinforce his pitch to Swiss companies, adding: “You make me truly nervous. I hope, I hope some Swiss companies will stay. I hope, I hope that some Swiss companies still will stay here after all this announcement.
Source : India Today