Claiming of red tape functioning, Goa's Investment Promotion Board CEO, Vishal Prakash takes a back foot

Panaji, September 12: Claiming increased red tape functioning within, the Goa Investment Promotion and Facilitation Board's CEO moved up to resign even as CM Pramod Sawant assured to revamp the investment promotion board to attract more investment into the state.

 

 

Vishal Prakash, chief executive officer of the Goa Investment Promotion and Facilitation Board (Goa-IPB), on Tuesday evening tendered his resignation to its chairman. CM Sawant, being the chairman of the state-run board, his mandate includes reviewing investment proposals and to draft approval process, guidelines and standard operating procedures for new investments, among others.

 

A few weeks ago, the Chief Minister had said he would fine-tune the working of the board to make it a single window system' for processing investment proposals. In his resignation letter, Prakash said, "I believed that my expertise and skill-sets would bring about a change in the functioning of Goa-IPB which is the showcase organisation for anyone looking to invest in Goa".

 

"However, thats not been the case and I have been bogged down by the same red-tapism that businesses complain about", he added. The outgoing CEO said he genuinely believed Goa was taking the lead in attracting talent from the private sector. "Freshness of thoughts and working styles could transform the below par image of the state from an investor perspective", Prakash maintained.

 

The board till date has received industrial investment proposals worth Rs 1,070 crore through 166 projects creating employment opportunities for 22,586 people.