8
Parks: 10,000 jobs p.a.
Sandesh Prabhudesai
9 August 2003
Goa has identified eight areas to set up specialised industrial
parks, ranging from biotech, pharmaceuticals, agro products
and food processing to information technology, tourism and
entertainment.
The first ever post-liberation comprehensive industrial policy
of the tourist state however has been formulated with a major
thrust on providing employment to locals, while arresting
increasing influx of outsiders.
The eight parks the state plans to set up are the pharma
park, food park including wine park, software technology park,
agro-economic zone, biotech park, apparel park, special economic
zone and the film city.
"We will also notify a comprehensive list of negative
industries, which will not be entertained in the state, including
pollutant industries", said chief minister Manohar Parrikar
after releasing the policy document.
Rather than limiting the whole industrial development to
the manufacturing alone, the comprehensive document speaks
about self-employment, agro-based industry, handicraft sector
and even traditional artisans.
The much popular tourism industry also envisages bifurcation
in the sectors like eco-tourism, heritage tourism, adventure
tourism, event tourism and medical tourism.
"Not less than 6000 to 10,000 jobs for locals would
be created annually, with equal thrust on rural areas, which
would avoid increasing infrastructural pressure on the urban
areas", said Parrikar.
Goa already has 6700 small industries and 147 medium and
large industries that provides around 50,000 jobs. Besides
tourism industry providing employment and self-employment
to equally large number, the 1.3 million-strong state also
carries burden of almost 50,000 government employees.
The unemployment figure has still not come down below one
lakh, in the highly educated state, for the last five years.
To encourage local employment, self-employment and entrepreneurship,
the policy has listed out subsidies for those providing employment
to locals, capital contribution for local entrepreneurs, share
capital for local self-employed and even subsidy on the interest
payment, to encourage reinvestment.
The policy also announces additional subsidy for ISI and
ISO certified units, those consuming local raw material, export-oriented
units and even for setting up the unit within one year.
Special thrust is being offered to womenfolk, with incentives
declared for employing women as well as to the women entrepreneurs.
The workforce is also being offered unique mediclaim scheme,
replacing it with mere medical allowances.
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