The Investor Summit, which was earlier scheduled to take place in October, has now been postponed to 2020. The decision was taken by State Administrative Council (SAC), which met under the chairmanship of Governor Satya Pal Malik, reviewed the preparedness for holding the J&K Investor Summit. After taking note of the level of preparedness for the J&K Investor Summit, the SAC decided that it should be rescheduled to 2020 in consultation with the union government to give the Department of Industries And Commerce reasonable time to make necessary preparations to secure robust participation of the investors in the summit. While the Centre had promised to bring in investments to the state, which will be, by October 31, bifurcated into two union territories, the task has only been pushed further back following the SAC’s decision to postpone the Investor Summit. This is the second time that the dates for the J&K Investor Summit have been postponed. This, even as the communication clampdown continues 45 days since the government’s decision to scrap the provisions under Article 370 that gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Several in Jammu & Kashmir traders association were also under detention after terror outfit Al Badr put up posters across Srinagar, threatening Kashmiris to observe a complete shutdown in protest against the Centre’s decision to abrogate Article 370, making it worse for the state. The SAC decided that the new dates for holding the J&K Investor Summit will be finalised in consultation with the government, keeping in view the policy work completion, logistics including schedule of roadshows, climatic conditions, the schedule of Parliament for both the winter session and the budget session, major national and international events and major festivals etc. The decision has also been taken to allow completion of all the policy revisions by the state and the Central government, further deliberations with prospective investors and other logistics related to the event. A detailed presentation on the preparedness for the summit was made before the SAC by the principal secretary, Industries & Commerce Department. It was also informed that the initial preparatory work has been completed. The SAC was also informed that the schedule for organising the roadshows across the major cities has been drawn up. Each roadshow will be organised as a separate event with a reasonable gap in between to give the Industries & Commerce Department more time to plan, interact and follow-up with the possible investors to secure their participation. It was accordingly decided that the schedule of the roadshows will be reworked. The SAC directed the department of industries & commerce to continue the preparation work in full swing and take all the required measures to make the event a success. The SAC also directed that consultation with various ministries of the union government be completed at the earliest for policy framework revision. It also directed the department to revisit all the existing policies and fill the policy gaps pertaining to various sectors and complete the same in next one month.
