What happened to 'Compete with China' policy, H D Kumaraswamy asks K'taka govt

'Compete with China' policy was to boycott Chinese products and compete with them by giving preference to local products. The objective was to offer jobs to the local residents, snatch away market opportunities for China and discard the Chinese products.

Bengaluru: Former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy had announced the ambitious 'Compete with China' policy during the previous JD(S)-Congress rule in 2018. The project was launched but still, it is not yet implemented or developed completely. Because CM BSY's govt did not give much importance to this. And there is hope on present CM Basavaraj Bommai.

'Compete with China' policy was to boycotting Chinese products and compete with them by giving preference to local products. "My objective was to offer jobs to the local residents, snatch away market opportunities for China and discard the Chinese products. However, what has the present government done to our scheme? It is not known whether it is still continuing or not," once (last year-2020 when calls for a boycott of Chinese products in the backdrop of Indo-China border faceoff) Kumaraswamy said in a tweet.

HDK had announced this policy in the 2018 state budget. He selected nine districts for this project as industrial cluster zones & decided to give Rs 2,000 crore to each district by the government. The plan was designed to attract investment of Rs.3,000 crore from the private sector. The goal was to develop products clusters, such as toys, mobile equipment, bathroom and electrical appliances etc..

Those districts are Kalaburagi - Generating spare parts for solar power generation, Koppal - Toy manufacturing industry, Mysore - set up a factory for manufacturing ICB chips, Tumkur -sports and fitness equipment, Chitradurga - LED lights, Hassan - Bathroom & Sanitary equipment, Bellary- set up a textile industry, Chikkaballapur-mobile spare parts manufacturing industry, Bidar -producing some machines.

B S Yeddyurappa had inaugurated a toy manufacturing unit in Koppal but couldn't attract investors in big numbers. The present BJP govt has removed Hasan, Tumakuru and Ballari from nine cluster zones due to no response from the investors. Instead, officials have proposed to replace Dharwad, Shimoga and Bellary under Compete with China project - said Shivakumar, the nodal officer of the project.

In other clusters (Kalaburagi, Koppal, Mysore, Chikkaballapur, Bidar, Chitradurga) the project is in the initial stage. ITBT department is looking after these clusters and getting good response from the investors - Nodal official said.