Gujarat government said that 25,578 Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) were inked during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, but refrained to give the amount of investment they will generate. The state government broke the tradition of last seven editions of biennial summits of announcing the amount of investment that the MoUs will bring.

In the last summit held in 2015, the state government had announced that it had inked 22,602 MoUs which will bring in investment of Rs 25 lakh crores. Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said 25,578 MoUs were signed in the three-day event, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “In the 8th edition of Vibrant Gujarat summit we have signed 25,578 MoUs which are around 2,500 more that that we had signed in 2015,” Patel said.

“Of these, 52 MoUs have expressed investment intention of more than Rs 4,000 crores. The maximum number of 18,533 were signed in MSME sector while 5,983 were (in) large scale industry section and remaining 1,107 were of nature of strategic partnership,” Patel said. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said the summit has been a great success.

Rupani said Gujarat government is criticised by some sections for non-implementation of 20 per cent of MoUs signed during earlier Vibrant Summits. “We are made to give accounts of implementation of MoUs signed during earlier Vibrant Summits even after we have realised and implemented 80 per cent them. People say that we are not able to realise that remaining 20 per cent MoUs,” he said.

“I do not take it negatively. I think that those criticising us have faith in us that we can achieve 100 per cent,” the Chief Minister added. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who was also present at the concluding function, said this summit was a real tribute to youths of Gujarat on the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, which is celebrated as National Youth Day.

“This is real tribute to the youths of the country on the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda which is celebrated as National Youth Day as it will generate a lot of employment for them,” said Parrikar.

Source: Indian Express