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Conference Reports |
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Madhavan Nair
Development Commissioner SEEPZ Special Economic Zone
Mr Madhavan Nair spoke in brief about the history of the SEZ's (Special Economic Zones) in India. He said that the development of the SEZ's was synonymous with the post industrial development of India, being a key part of the EXIM policy, to increase the share of India in world trade.
SEZ's trace their history back to the Export Processing zones (EPZ's), the first one being set up in 1965 in Kandla. In fact India was a pioneer in this concept, and the Kandla SEZ was the second ever in the world after Shannon in Ireland. Eight other EPZ's were set up by the Government over a period of time till the nineties. Finally in 2000, the government introduced a special policy for SEZ's and converted the existing EPZ's into SEZ's.
Mr Madhavan Nair also dwelt on the benefits of the SEZ's, stating that their unique selling proposition lay in the simplification of procedures and the special powers granted to the Development Commissioners to act on behalf of the State and Local authorities.
He said that with the new SEZ rules coming into place, about 25 licenses have been granted by the Government for setting up STP's. The main criterion for the setting up of a multi product SEZ's is that they must be set up over a minimum area of 1000 hectares, apart from specialized SEZ's which can be over a smaller area. However, Mr Madhavan Nair pointed out that this criterion could emerge as a major constraint in the setting up of the SEZ's in the light of the Government's policy of only having private sector investment in this area.
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