The government proposes to pursue the public-private participation (PPP) model in a big way to attract private investment in different sectors of the State economy during the 12th Five Year Plan.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Industries Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty told reporters after the first meeting of the reconstituted State Planning Board here on Friday that given the constraints in raising external loans and paucity of State's own resources, there would be an accelerated effort to raise investment using the PPP model. A special cell would be constituted at the State Planning Board to coordinate investment and other activities relating to the PPP route, Mr. Chandy said.
The Chief Minister said the government also proposed to request the Centre to sanction untied funds to the local self-government institutions in view of the difficulties they experienced in taking up development work of their choice. Several local bodies, he pointed out, were faced with serious shortage of funds outside the specific schemes and projects and this was affecting their ability to deliver on the people's needs and aspirations.
Investment summit
Mr. Kunhalikutty said the challenge before the State was to go in for wealth creation on a massive scale. The State IT and industrial policies were in the making. Appropriate changes would be brought in them based on the discussions in the Planning Board. The government also proposed to alter the timelines of the proposed ‘Emerging Kerala' investment summit, planned for April, taking into account the opinions heard at the Planning Board meeting, he added.
The Chief Minister said the government was looking forward to a double digit economic growth during the 12th Plan period. Figures available so far indicated that there was 74 per cent achievement of the 11th Plan target till the fourth year. The government proposed to create a strong and effective Plan implementation mechanism at the Planning Board. There would be two systems of monitoring, the first dealing with the overall implementation of the Plan and the second dealing with specific projects. All offices of the Planning Board would be computerised and modernised.
Key role for Board
“The Planning Board will play a major role in the implementation of the 12th Plan,” he said and added that the approach paper for the 12th Plan would be put up on the website of the State Planning Board and the widest possible discussion held before it was finalised.
Planning Board Vice-Chairman K.M. Chandrasekhar said the Board had arrived at an estimated outlay of Rs.1.05 lakh crore, up from Rs.40,422 crore during the 11th Plan, taking into account the various possibilities for raising resources and under-estimating the State's share from Central taxes. The increase was also justified given the broader base from which the new outlay was worked out, he added.
Among those present at the news conference included Finance and Housing Minister K.M. Mani, Rural Development Minister K.C. Joseph, Planning Board members E. Sreedharan, C.P. John and G. Vijayaraghavan. The Board meeting was also attended by Board member Tarun Das.
