UP Investors Summit 2018: Ram Nath Kovind attends closing ceremony, says state has potential to be India's biggest economic power

Lucknow: The two-day Investors Summit organized by the Uttar Pradesh government drew to a close on Thursday evening with the address of President Ram Nath Kovind, who said that the state had the potential to become the biggest economic power in the country and the turnaround in the fortunes had begun.

“Youth from Uttar Pradesh are bringing laurels from all over the world and the state has also given nine Prime Ministers to this great country,” he said while also pointing out that UP was also his birthplace. [caption id=“attachment_4363541” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] President Ram Nath Kovind shakes hands with UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath at UP Investors Summit at Indira Gandhi Prathishthaan in Lucknow on Thursday. PTI[/caption] The summit, Kovind said, was a step in the right direction which will take UP to dizzying heights. Underlining the importance of the huge work force and also the biggest consumer base that the state offers, the President also pointed out his this was a major reason for investors to flock to the state during the investors summit. Several initiatives rolled out by the state government, like the ease of doing business, single window system and industrial security, had endeared many investors into putting their money in projects in Uttar Pradesh, he added. Kovind also said that in the last three years there has been record growth in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country and the cashless payments system had enhanced the scope of growth. Earlier in the day defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, railway minister Piyush Goyal and union finance minister Arun Jaitley addressed different sessions. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath thanked the people of the state, the bureaucracy, the investors and prime minister Narendra Modi for the roaring success of the event. He once again reiterated the resolve expressed during the inaugural session on Wednesday to ensure that each MoU signed during the meet was taken to its logical conclusion. More than 1,200 MoUs were signed during the two day meet with investments of over Rs 4.35 lakh crore being committed by investors and industrialists like Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Subhash Chandra and Anand Mahindra. More than seven countries participated in the event. Opposition parties have however slammed the state government over the event and have accused it of blowing up people’s money on a futile exercise. Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, of the Samajwadi Party, said that with no work to show, the BJP was once again resorting to tall promises even as deliverance on the ground was abysmal. The Congress has also said that the event was a non-starter and was likely to ring in not much in terms of investment and industrialization.