Belgium has become the first country to open an honorary consulate office in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City).
Besides the Belgian Embassy in New Delhi, two Consulates-General in Mumbai and Chennai, and an honorary consulate in Kolkata, Belgium has expanded its diplomatic representation in India with this new office in Gandhinagar.
The consulate was inaugurated by Belgian Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Pieter De Crem, at an event where Ajay Pandey, Managing Director and Group CEO, GIFT City, and members of a high-level delegation from Belgium were also present.
Hari Sankaran was nominated as Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Belgium to the state of Gujarat.
Sankaran, who is the Vice-Chairman and MD, IL&FS, said Gujarat and Belgium have had strong historic ties around the diamond industry.
With Gujarat emerging as a pre-eminent centre for manufacturing, agriculture, and, now services through GIFT, the potential for increasing collaboration is manifold.
About GIFT City- GIFT is a central business district (CBD) located between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar in the state of Gujarat.
- GIFT is built on 886 acres of land to provide high-quality physical infrastructure with facilities like electricity, water, gas, district cooling, roads, telecoms and broadband services to woo finance and tech firms to relocate their operations from Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurgaon etc.
- GIFT includes a special economic zone (SEZ), international education zone, integrated townships, an entertainment zone, hotels, a convention center, an international techno park, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) units, shopping malls, stock exchanges and other service units.
- The likely cost of the GIFT City project is INR 70,000 crore.
- Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited (GIFTCL) is responsible for developing and implementing the project.
- GIFTCL is a joint venture of Gujarat Urban Development Company Limited (GUDCOL) and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS).
