DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday reviewed the functioning of the Industries and Commerce Department and assured of fulsome support to boost industrialisation to emerge the state on the top of the industrial map in the country. He also lauded the efforts for bringing whopping investment proposals worth Rs 84,500 crore since March 2017. Chairing a review meeting of the Industries & Commerce Department, the chief minister said that the paucity of funds would not be allowed to hamper the functioning of the department, according to a government statement here. He also emphasised the need to further liberalise the existing industrial and business policies so as to attract more investment in the state. Acceding to the request of Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan, the chief minister gave approval to hold a virtual investment meet amid the COVID-19 pandemic, preferably in coming October or November as an endeavour to boost confidence amongst the prospective investors/entrepreneurs to invest in Punjab. The chief minister also gave go ahead to the proposal mooted by the chief secretary for getting the labour working in industrial units vaccinated on priority. Amarinder also asked the industries department to examine the proposal to get the requisite funds under TIES scheme of the government of India for promotion of export of auto part industries in Ludhiana, which would further give impetus to the auto parts manufacturing in the state. Taking part in the deliberations, Industries and Commerce Minister Sunder Sham Arora lauded the efforts of the chief minister for ensuring record investment to the tune of Rs 84,500 crore on the ground compared to the fact that huge number of MoUs were merely signed during the previous SAD-BJP government but not much came on ground. He also mentioned that the present government has so far extended incentives worth more than Rs 7,000 crore to the state industry. The chief minister while 3rd meeting of the Board of Governors of Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion (PBIP) asked the state-owned 'Invest Punjab' to work out a model where incentives for the industry can be given as per needs of the industry on a case-to-case basis. Meanwhile, CEO Invest Punjab Rajat Agrawal made a presentation about the work done by the Bureau in the last four years. It was informed that a total of 2,394 projects worth Rs 84,500 crore have come to the state. (editor@dailyworld.in)