Kerala Government Seeks NRI Remittances

Better late than never, Kerala seems to be taking the right steps,
though a bit late. The state is making an effort to canalise the remittances
made by NRIs from the State to productive projects.

The meet of Kerala NRIs at the Keraleeya Pravasi Sangamam, an annual
ritual performed by Non-Residents Kerala Affairs (NoRKA) focused mainly
on NRI investments. It the inaugural ceremony, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan
said that his government had decided to float a new company to attract
NRI investment.

The proposed firm will offer consultancy services to those willing
to set up their own ventures. Besides, the company would launch welfare
schemes for NRIs.
This will raise doubt whether the government has done the homework well
before deciding investment avenues for the hard-earned money of NRIs.
There are already two State-owned companies – Kinfra and InKEL – in
the infrastructural development business. InKEL is the recent origin.

Though the successive governments have been making efforts to attract
the NRI fund, the response of the nearly 20 lakh expatriates is lukewarm.

But there is ample reason for the same; they have lost confidence in
the government run projects and schemes. In the mid seventies, the government
set up a few manufacturing companies partially funded by NRIs. Within
a few years all the companies vanished from the industrial landscape.

This has shattered the dream of the NRIs to invest in government- run
projects. It was years later, Cochin International Airport Ltd, the
first public private participation venture in the country was set up
at the initiative of the then Chief Minister K Karaunakaran.

Though the venture, in which NRIs have invested substantially, won
accolades from various quarters, the success of the project does not
bring much cheer to the NRI investors.

Photo: Kochi harbour, Kerala, India by Vyacheslav Argenberg, licensed under CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.