Karnataka has garnered major commitments for investments at the World Economic Forum (WEF) which concluded on Saturday in Davos, Switzerland, announced Industries Minister M.B. Patil.

“This edition of WEF has emerged as a major springboard for Karnataka to achieve significant gains in investments, expansion and partnerships across sectors such as aerospace, food processing, data centres, digital infrastructure, clean energy and advanced manufacturing, with investment commitments,” he said.

45 meetings

The Mr. Patil-led delegation from Karnataka had 45 meetings and consultations with existing and potential investors during the forum. The State was successful in drawing global attention at WEF and was able to position itself as one of the leading destinations for Artificial Intelligence, global capability centres (GCCs), research and sustainable urban development, he said.

According to Mr. Patil, the consultations with industry leaders have laid a strong foundation for fresh investment inflows into the State and have also significantly accelerated projects already under implementation.

“These will help Karnataka to strengthen its competitive position in the next phase of global trade and industrial transformation. Global business leaders have praised the State’s industry-friendly environment and the availability of skilled human resources, reflecting the far-sighted, industry-oriented initiatives being implemented by the government,” the Minister stated.

With the objective of strengthening bilateral trade ties, the Minister also participated in discussions with corporate leaders, investors, reputed educational institutions, heads of governments and senior officials of WEF. Discussions were also held with the Singapore Economic Development Board on establishing a ‘Singapore Park’ to attract Singapore-based companies, he said in a release.

Coca-Cola, Nokia and others

Efforts were also made to attract a substantial share of Coca-Cola’s proposed ₹25,760 crore investment in India to Karnataka. Discussions were also held with Nokia, Cloudflare, Vast Space, Menzies Aviation, Tata Sons and Amazon Web Services.

Big investments

Some of the large investment commitments received by Karnataka include, the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group (RPSG) in Vijayapura and Ballari districts, significantly boosting the renewable energy sector and development in north Karnataka.

Imperial College, one of London’s most prestigious universities, has evinced interest to set up a research and development centre in ‘KWIN City’, coming up between Dabaspet and Doddaballapur.