South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley interacted with politicians and industry alike as she began her 10-day visit to the country from Chandigarh. In Punjab, Ms. Haley — who was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa and who is the second Indian-American governor in the U.S. after Bobby Jindal — said her main objective is to establish aerospace, pharma, tourism and agro-processing industries.
Elected for a second term as the Governor of her State, Ms. Haley called on Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, at his official residence. She declared that South Carolina could help Punjab in getting business connections and advocated exchange of delegations to take this initiative forward.
The Governor spoke about how South Carolina has been able to create new jobs in the aerospace and hospitality sectors. “Our success rate in skill training is as much as 93 per cent and we would be glad to assist Punjab in this field also,” she added.
Photo: AP
Ms. Haley, who had last visited the State along with her parents 40 years ago, declared that she was proud to be part of a Jat Sikh family. She said she was delighted to be back in the State of her roots. “The last time I came here was when I was two-years-old,” she said, adding she looked forward to visiting the Darbar Sahab in Amritsar.
Mr. Badal said: “We believe the government should not be in business and have changed laws to ensure investors get quick clearances. We have also created a department of administrative reforms.” Ms. Haley also participated in an interactive session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry here.
