The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted the Hon’ble Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant at the Secretariat. This was his maiden visit after the beginning of his second term as Chief Minister of Goa. President Ralph de Sousa, Vice President Shrinivas Dempo, welcomed him with a floral bouquet and gave him a brief background over the rich history of the secretariat, and its past presidents. Chief Secretary Puneet Kumar Goyal, and his team of various IAS Secretaries also attended the meeting.
Vice President Pratima Dhond, Hon. Secretary Yatin Kakodkar, Hon. Treasurer Chandrakant Gawas, Dir. General Sanjay Amonkar along with Managing Committee members were present.
De Sousa made a comprehensive presentation on achieving the vision of ‘Swayampurna Goa 2.0’ and Aatmanirbhar Bharat. To begin with GCCI congratulated the CM for all his initiatives such as appointing professionals as heads of the departments, setting up world class medical hazardous waste management facility at Kundaim, and assured full support to create awareness about various schemes announced both at state and national level.
The Chamber requested various administrative reforms; more focus on reduction in transmission and distribution losses in the Power sector, formation of district level committees for in ED- Goa and more power sanction for Goa from the Centre. Regarding labour GCCI requested a dialogue with the Industry and Government in labour related matters. Promoting mass plantation of Goan traditional fruit bearing trees along the national highways were also one of the suggestions.
In his response the CM assured to
- Remove multiplicity of various licenses. Government has already started EODB in Town and Country Planning but more reforms needs to be done in other departments.
- Implement Public Service Delivery Act ( 2013) in principle
- Facilitate accreditation of local hotels, venues having facilities to host marriages or public events under ease of doing business.
- He has also agreed to set up a Grievance Redressal Committee with GCCI members, industry stakeholders can directly connect with CMO and discuss on industry specific issues and ensure fast track resolution of long pending as well as current difficulties faced by Goan trade and industry. He added that with this committee in operation all major issues will be sorted out within 6 months.
- GCCI had submitted Draft Retail Policy which the CM assured to expedite. GCCI also agreed to work with Government on a Goa-centric Logistic policy.
- At the initiation of the CM, Goa Government has entered into a dialog with the Government of Telangana regarding their industrial model. This will be further discussed with Telangana state to adapt it for Goa.
- The CM informed that Goa spends over Rs 10 Crores per day towards procuring milk, vegetables, fruits, poultry etc. from other states. He appealed to the industry and farming community to increase the yield of these products in Goa. This will ensure that the money spent on other states will remain in Goa. GCCI Agriculture and Food Processing Committee will be supporting the Government to rejuvenate this primary sector.
- As regards, logistics the Mormugoa port connectivity will be completed within the next 6-9 months. This will be part of the multimodal linkage under the Gati Shakti Programme and modernization of infrastructure. Government is also working with the Centre to solve the container issue in Mormugao Port
- He also assured that he will personally intervene to restart the Food Technology Diploma course at Government Polytechnic Panjim. However awareness needs to be created for attracting students to this course.
- GCCI alongwith Goa Institute of Management had prepared a skill gap report which was submitted to the Chief Minister. CM while appreciating the report said that the Government is ready to start certified training courses for a period of 3 months after mapping with the demand of skillsets required with an assurance of maximum absorption of local youth in the industries.
Yatin Kakodkar proposed the Vote of Thanks while thanking the Chief Minister for his initiative and valuable time and presence alongwith the Chief Secretary and the Secretaries of various department
