By Our Correspondent
SAMBALPUR:A grand ceremony to establish a Joint Venture between India’s leading steelmaker JSW and Japan’s renowned JFE Steel Corporation was held in Sambalpur on Friday in the presence of Union Education Minister and Sambalpur MP Shri Dharmendra Pradhan and Odisha Chief Minister Shri Mohan Charan Majhi. Shri Pradhan asserted that this development project of ‘JSW JFE Steel Limited’ will transform Sambalpur and Jharsuguda, including Odisha, into a leading manufacturing and logistics hub.
The event was attended by Ambassador of Japan to India, Shri Ono Keiichi, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister of Odisha Government, Suresh Pujari, Panchayati Raj, Rural Development and Drinking Water Minister, Rabi Naik, Sambalpur MLA Jai Narayan Mishra, Jharsuguda MLA Tankadhar Tripathi, Chairman and Managing Director of JSW Group Sajjan Jindal, CEO of JFE Steel Corporation Shri Yoshihisa Kitano , Chief Secretary Anu Garg, Additional Chief Secretary, Industry, Home and IPR Hemant Sharma, and representatives of Japanese industry.
Welcoming this historic partnership, Shri Pradhan said that under this mega project, an investment of about Rs. 1 lakh crore will be made in Odisha, which will mainly focus on high-quality steel production. The strong diplomatic relations between India and Japan since 1952 will complete 75 years in 2027, and this investment will further strengthen the relationship between the two countries.
Highlighting the deep spiritual ties between Odisha and Japan, he said that for the first time, JFE is coming out of Japan and working in Odisha with JSW of India, where both the companies together have a steel production capacity of more than 59 million metric tons per annum. The merger of JSW and JFE is not just a business agreement, but it is a combination of Japan’s technological excellence and India’s industrial capabilities for responsible development. Shri Pradhan hoped that this project will also set an example in the field of environmental protection by emphasizing on ‘green steel’ production.
JSW and Japan’s JFE Steel Corporation have agreed to expand the annual production capacity of JSW plant in Sambalpur from 4.5 million tonnes to 10 million tonnes in a 50:50 partnership. This investment will make Sambalpur, Jharsuguda and the entire western Odisha region a leading manufacturing and logistics hub. Shri Pradhan has emphasized on giving priority to local employment, skill development and social inclusion along with industrialization. This will create thousands of direct and indirect employment opportunities in the local area and this project will prove to be a ‘game changer’ for the economy of Odisha. Through this project, Odisha will emerge as a major hub in the global steel map.
Giving information about regional development and employment opportunities, Shri Pradhan said that in the last 25 years, the area from Sundargarh to Bargarh has emerged as a major industrial cluster, where airports and modern facilities are available. ‘Zoho Skill Hub’ has been inaugurated in the premises of Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VISUT) in Burla.
Due to this, 25 youth of Sambalpur are currently learning Japanese language, so that they can get direct employment in this Japanese project. He called it “Buy One-Get One Freer” and said that investors will not only get factories here, but also a skilled and linguistic youth. Reiterating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mantra of “respecting wealth creators”, he said that the development of the country and the welfare of the poor is possible only through industrialization. He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, JSW Group and JFE Steel Corporation for today’s initiative.
