Kerala dreams, but without aim: Oommen Chandy sets out to correct 'investor unfriendly' image

Kerala has always been perceived as a state leaning towards the left of the centre and perhaps now, it is the only centre for the Left, with some communist grassroots presence. It is this perception or to some extent the truth, which makes investors wary to make huge investments in the state. It is a state that seems to be 'investor unfriendly' with its political dogmas infamous for its hartals and strikes.

It is this image that the Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy wants to change rapidly. The present government of the Congress-led United Democratic Front, or UDF, has launched a campaign called Emerging Kerala to brand Kerala as an investment destination full of 'emerging' opportunities.

The state will host a Global investors Summit from September 12 to 14 this year in Kochi. The chief minister met the press in Delhi on April 20 along with his finance minister and the minister for industries.

Questions about the lack of infrastructure, problem of power and so on, none to which the CM couldn't give a satisfactory reply.

The media still remembered and reminded the CM of the Global Investors Meet of 2003 conducted by the then CM and the present Defence Minister A K Antony, which was a flop show, thanks to the vehement protests by the Left parties.

And it is not like the communists don't like investments in Kerala, but they would only allow it when they are in power.

This was demonstrated when the former CM V S Achuthanandan of the CPI(M) made a lot of effort to bring the Smart City Project, an IT township to Kochi with the Tecom group of Dubai. But even after the latest deadline of January 14, 2012, gone past, it is still, a work in progress.

God's own Country Kerala, which was ranked as one of best 50 tourism hotspots globally by the National Geographic Magazine, is trying to rebrand itself as a preferred investment destination in the likes Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and so on. Recently, Bihar tried to showcase the strengths of the state under its Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, termed as the Global Bihar Summit.

Kerala is trying to woo investors by showcasing its single window clearance mechanism and educated human power.

In a state when there was a recent newspaper agents strike, social activists, cultural leaders and resident associations took up the agents' job, nobody will even try to question the claim of an intellectual and educated manpower.

The CM's meeting with business leaders on Saturday evening in association with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and NASSCOM tried to woo the audience with the ambitious upcoming projects like the $20 billion High Speed Rail Corridor which will connect Thiruvananthapuram and Mangalore, the monorail projects in different parts of the state, and the much anticipated Kochi Metro Rail project.

But these are all works in progress, still. It is time for the Kerala government to walk the talk and, if it does, investments will naturally follow.