BANGALORE: The State Government is planning to appoint "ambassadors of industry" for the State by choosing leading non-resident Indians (NRIs) in the U.S., Europe, East Asia and countries in West Asia to bring investment to Karnataka, Minister for Industries Katta Subramanya Naidu told presspersons on Saturday.

He was part of a high-level delegation led by Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa that toured the U.S. from August 31 to September 10. The Government would not give salaries or perks to these ambassadors but they would promote investment in the State, Mr. Naidu said.

The issue would be soon finalised after discussions with Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Mr. Yediyurappa, he said. Several multinational companies (MNCs) based in the U.S. have evinced keen interest to invest in information technology (IT), IT-enabled services, hardware and medical tourism. Proposals of at least Rs. 2,000 crore would be finalised soon. The delegation held one-to-one meetings with business leaders at Baltimore, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles and urged them to invest in the State. Starting next week several U.S. business delegations would visit the city to interact with the Government to work out investment modalities, he said. The State delegation visited the Intel headquarters at Santa Clara. The company will be investing Rs. 5,000 crore on software parks in Bangalore and Mysore in the next two years.

The IT giant has agreed to work with Government to establish skills development centres in two districts, according to Mr. Naidu.

He said prominent medical doctors of Karnataka origin in the U.S. had shown interest in investing in "Medicity" in Bangalore.George Pataki, Governor of New York, will visit the State in October-end. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California, had proposed to visit the State next year, the Minister said.

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