Kerala woos US IT majors

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Thursday called for more private investments in the state's IT sector and asked IT majors in US and other countries to consider Kerala for expanding their operations.

Inaugurating the Leela IT park, Kerala's first IT park in the private sector at nearby Kakkanad in Kochi, he said the state was emerging as one of the most sought after IT destinations in the country.

A lot more still needed to be done for which he sought active support from the private entrepreneurs.

Pointing out that a Nasscom study had stated that Kochi was likely to emerge as the leading IT destination among Tier-II cities in the country, Chandy invited IT majors from US and other countries to commence their operations from Kerala. This would also help Indian IT professionals abroad to take the opportunities unfolding in their own country.

He said the government alone could not do everything. In the coming years, the government's role will be that of a catalyst for providing enabling environment, he said.

With the state government envisaging manifold increase in the investments in the sector, many initiatives like liberalised labour laws and single window clearance have been implemented, he said and many key players like Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, Infosys and the Leela group have already come in.

Chandy said the final agreement on the Smart City project, an IT infrastructure project, would be signed 'very soon' with the Dubai Internet City.

Kerala's biggest advantage was availability of qualified human resources with about 20,000 engineering graduates passing out every year, he said.

There had been complaints of poor air connectivity to Kerala, but with Air Deccan, Kingfisher airlines and Paramount commencing their operations from the state, Kerala is well connected, he said.

Outsources Partners International, a leading BPO firm, has taken up the entire space of 1.37 lakh square feet space at the Leela park.

Clarence Schmitz, OPI chairman, said Kochi was selected after evaluating the employees skills in at least six other Indian cities.

OPI's aim was to have 2,000 employees within the next 18 to 24 months at the Kochi unit. They already have a service centre at Bangalore.

Venu Krishnan, executive director, Leela Group said the group would be investing about Rs 260 crore (Rs 2.6 billion) in providing IT infrastructure at Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.

It would be commencing work on the construction of a second IT building at the park here with 3.5 lakh square feet space in the second phase.

In the third phase, another building with 3.5 lakh square feet space would be constructed. About 4 lakh square feet space was being planned in Thiruvananthapuram.