Kerala’s Outreach at Davos Brightens Investment Prospects: Minister P Rajeeve

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Business leaders from across the world have shown keen interest in investment opportunities that Kerala holds as the state unveiled the profound transformation its industrial landscape has undergone at the World Economic Forum (WEF) that concluded last week in Davos, Switzerland.

Significantly, the 55th annual meeting of WEF has imparted an added momentum to the Invest Kerala Global Summit 2025 (IKGS 2025), scheduled in Kochi on February 21 and 22, Minister for Industries, Law and Coir P Rajeeve, who led the Kerala delegation to Davos, told a press conference here today.

The announcement of the Kerala Green Hydrogen Valley project, one of the 13 leading industrial clusters, was recognised globally at the 55th annual meeting of World Economic Forum for their efforts to decarbonise. These projects span countries like Australia, Brazil, Colombia, India, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.

The project is designed to reduce carbon emissions across critical sectors, particularly transportation, which accounts for nearly 50% of the state’s annual CO₂ emissions. It has been estimated that the demand for green hydrogen in Kerala is presently concentrated in six sectors (refineries, fertilisers, road transport, water transport, chemicals and exports). In the short term, the Valley anticipates an investment activity of around USD 30 million. Additionally, the Valley is evaluating proposals worth approximately USD 1.2 billion for ammonia exports. The state’s efforts are well-aligned with India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission, which aims to produce five million tonnes of green hydrogen annually by 2030.

The state successfully showcased the New Industrial policy (NIP) of the Government that identifies 22 priority sectors for investment.

This is for the first time that Kerala had a pavilion as part of the India Pavilion at the WEF, along with five other states.

Shri Rajeeve, who held over 70 one-to-one meetings with industry honchos at Davos, said many of them showed keen interest in making investments in the state, and are expected to turn up for IKGS 2025 in Kochi.

Among the top business executives who showed interest in investing in the state included Anil Kumar Chalamalasetty, Chief Executive and Managing Director, Greenko; B K Goenka, Chairman, Welspun Group; Anjali Gupta, Head (Marketing) and Aman Mehra (Head – Strategy), Sify; Pradeep Parameshwaran, Uber CEO; Neelesh Tungar, President, Bharat Forge and CEO, Kalyani Strategic Systems; Hari S Bhartia, Founder and Co-Chairman Jubilant Bhartia Group; R Dinesh, Executive Chairman, TVS Logistics; Dr Bharat Kaushal, Managing Director, Hitachi India; Anand Chordia, Founder, Suhana Spices; and leadership of HCL and Infosys.

The interactions held at the Invest Kerala Pavilion at WEF focused on various verticals ranging from high-tech to MSMEs in the state, which now tops the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) ranking in India.

The sustainable and inclusive development model pitched by Kerala at WEF received great resonance from the business leaders, brightening the state’s investment prospects in multiple sectors including high tech-driven enterprises that define Industry 4.0, the Minister said.

The state put across the message that it offers big investment opportunities in diverse sectors as a fast-growing global hub of technology-driven enterprises side-by-side the established domains like tourism, medtech and healthcare, food, spices and marine products processing, apart from having India’s best startup ecosystem.

The resounding success of the Year of Enterprises initiative which has yielded nearly four lakh MSMEs within a short span of 3 years and unlocked the entrepreneurial spirit down to the local community level was also featured.

The Kerala pavilion was visited by delegations from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Switzerland.

The Kerala delegation that visited Davos included Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) Dr A Jayathilak, Principal Secretary Industries and Commerce, APM Mohammed Hanish, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) MD S Harikishore and KSIDC Executive Director Hari Krishnan R, who were also present at the press conference today.

The state delegation hosted panel discussions on deep tech, biotechnology, and e-governance at the India Pavilion, besides sharing the state’s experience at four other panel discussions.

These discussions brought to focus Kerala’s significant contributions to India’s initiatives in deep-tech innovation, particularly in healthcare, space technology, and Artificial Intelligence.

The Chief Ministers from other states who were present appreciated the way Kerala changed the script and went on to become the top ranker in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB).

The industrial development model being pursued by the state was appreciated by the participants at WEF as it emphasises on sustaining economic growth by adopting responsible and inclusive practices in a world confronted with grim challenges including the consequences of climate change.

At panel sessions, the Kerala delegation delineated the state’s transition into a knowledge economy and the shift it had made in governance through digitisation of processes and procedures.

CII Kerala Chapter President Vinod Manjila was also present during the one-on-one meetings which were facilitated by CII.