Kerala, the southern Indian state, is set to announce a set of attractive incentive packages, including reduced land lease charges and rental costs, to woo corporate biggies from the Middle East, especially from Dubai and Riyadh – the two emerging global hubs for businesses – to set up their technology centres or back up operations in the sprawling IT parks in the state.
A top team from the state government’s IT department and the three mega IT parks is scheduled to visit Riyadh in the first week of March, coinciding with LEAP 2024 in the Saudi capital, to hold interactions and make presentations to technology majors – both international and regional – in a concerted effort to market the state-of-the art facilities and talents available in the state.
The IT park management will also offer help in providing tech talents across segments, especially those who have years of working experience in the UAE and the wider region, to companies, banks and other organisations willing to house their back-end operations or technology centres in the state.
“The draft policy on the proposed incentive package [for companies setting up operations in the IT parks] is ready and is currently under finalisation,” Sushant Kurunthil, CEO of Infopark, told Arabian Business.
“Though the incentives will applicable to all companies, irrespective of their place of origin, we will be making a concerted effort to highlight the incentives, especially those related to land lease and rental costs and talent support, to woo companies from major Middle East business hubs such as Dubai and Riyadh to get them to locate their technology centres or backend operations in our IT parks,” Kurunthil said.
Kerala’s move to complement UAE, Saudi Arabia’s push to make Dubai, Riyadh as global business hubs
Officials privy to the state government’s thinking said the Kerala government’s strategy is to act complementary to the big bang moves by the UAE and Saudi governments to make cities like Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh as global business hubs with multi-billion investment plans.
Saudi Arabia has also mandated companies overseas companies to set up their regional headquarters in the country to bid for businesses there.
The concerted policy and financial pushes are already paying off with Dubai and Riyadh seeing several global and regional biggies setting up their regional headquarters for their Middle East – and also the next phase of global – expansions.
The Kerala government hopes to benefit from the influx of global companies into the two Gulf cities by encouraging some of them to consider the well-established IT parks in the state to house their backend or IT/ITES-related activities.
Varying discounts on rentals, state-of-art facilities part of the Kerala inventive package
Official sources said besides heavy discounts on land lease charges and rental costs based on the number of employees by companies, the proposed incentive package of Kerala will also offer further discounts on rentals if companies employ more women or disabled persons.
Besides, companies setting up operations in the three IT parks in the state – Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram, Infopark in Kochi, and Cyber Park in Kozhikode – will also get tax and other financial incentives under the provisions of special economic zones.
Kurunthil said besides the financial incentives, the IT parks can also provide a highly talented workforce to companies planning to set up operations there.
“We have a well-established network with top technical and other institutions through which we can ensure steady supply of talents. Besides, the state also has a large pool of talents with ‘Middle East experience’ which can be an added advantage for companies based in the region seeking to set up operations in our IT parks,” the Infopark top executive said.
Kerala’s achievement in creating a world-class ICT infrastructure spread across the state, accomplished through the hub and spoke model centered around major cities like Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, and Kozhikode, will also be touted to woo companies from the Middle East, he said.
The Kochi-centred Infopark spread over 260 acres, currently houses as many as 580 companies, employing over 70,000 employees, including several companies and banks from the Middle East.
“Our plan is to double these numbers – both in terms of companies and employees – over the next 3-5 years,” Kurunthil said.
