Kerala has bagged yet another unique distinction to the credit of its citizens on Friday.
The State has turned out to be the first sub-sovereign entity in the country to access the international market by listing masala bonds issued through its off-budget mechanism, the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB). Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has become the debutant head of state in the country to open trading at the London Stock Exchange for the day.
Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac, KIIFB chief executive K.M. Abraham, and Chief Secretary Tom Jose accompanied Mr. Vijayan at the function held at 8 a.m. (London time) at the stock exchange. KIIFB has raised ₹2,150 crore through masala bonds at a fixed interest rate of 9.723% per annum.
The resources earned through the bonds would be channelised for funding a clutch of infrastructure development projects cleared by the KIIFB director board. KIIFB had decided to garner ₹3,500 crore from the international market in the initial phase. It plans to list the bonds at the Singapore stock exchange too.
After the function, Mr. Vijayan told reporters that Kerala had attracted worldwide attention as a society that attained high literacy and health standards despite having a comparatively lower per capita income. This was the outcome of State intervention and public action, he said.
Policy revamp
The State was committed to providing infrastructure facilities of international standards for luring investors. Resource crunch would never be an impediment in providing such facilities to prospective investors, he said.
The government was aware of the shortcomings of the State in becoming an industrial investment hub and interventions were being made to overcome such limitations. A policy framework for doing business at ease had been put in place without compromising on environmental sustainability and welfare legislation, he said.
The State could ideally be developed as a knowledge hub using its large pool of educated youth, whose skills could be enhanced to meet the requirements of investors, he said, and listed out the single-window clearance mechanism and other steps taken for easing the procedures for investments.
