Dubai: UAE investors have signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) worth USD 2.76 billion with India's state Odisha, after meeting with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in Dubai.

Odisha Government led by Honourable Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik met key UAE business groups as part of an investment roadshow aimed at promoting investment in the state's industrial sector.

The Investors' Meet held on Wednesday was jointly organized with industry body FICCI and the Embassy of India in UAE. It was attended by more than 150 companies based out of the UAE and the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region.

The announcement comes after the state approved more than 250 large-scale industrial and infrastructure project proposals collectively worth USD 50 billion in sectors such as Metals and Metal downstream, Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Textiles and Apparel including Technical Textiles, Food processing including Seafood processing, ESDM, Logistics and Clean Energy in the last two years.

Inviting the UAE investors to Odisha State, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik addressed the gathering underlining Odisha's four key advantages including Mineral, Human Resources, Technology in delivering efficient and effective investment facilitation, Progressive policy and governance.

"Odisha offers great opportunity to foreign investors and our Team is ready to extend any help to facilitate investment to the UAE investors," he said in a statement.

Highlighting the state's rich mineral resources, he said, Odisha holds the lion's share of India's mineral reserves with 96 percent of the country's chromite reserves, 92 per cent nickel, 53 per cent bauxite, 45 per cent manganese, 35 per cent iron-ore, and 23 per cent coal reserves of India.

This has made Odisha the largest producer of Steel, Stainless Steel, Ferro Alloys, Alumina, and Aluminium in India.

Odisha also has 11 per cent of India's water resources. The state has a 480-km long coastline making it a natural choice for setting up ports, and for international trade.

Suresh Chandra Mahapatra, Chief Secretary of Odisha state and Hemant Sharma, Principal Secretary for Industrial Development of Odisha state highlighted the economic opportunities in key sectors.

The Investors Meet was addressed by the Indian Ambassador to the UAE, Sanjay Sudheer, who stressed on the significance of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), signed between the UAE and India - which reduces taxes and will help two-way trade and investment between India and the UAE to accelerate.

CM Patnaik also announced that the State would be conducting the third edition of its flagship Global Investors Meet - "Make In Odisha 2022" during November 30 to December 4, this year at Bhubaneswar.