BENGALURU: Investors from Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) countries have evinced keen interest to set up a world class 'Design District' on the Bengaluru city outskirts besides coming here with various investment proposals, said C.N. Ashwath Narayan, Karnataka's Minister of IT, BT and ST.
The minister, who returned from a four-day visit to Dubai Expo 2020, said that a delegation of investors from the GCC countries like the UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt have shown keen interest to invest in the state.
GCC is a regional intergovernmental political and economic union comprising countries like the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar.
Narayan said that the proposed Rs 1, 000 crore Design District will come up on 100 to 150 acre land.
"The proposed design district will be way ahead than the one in Dubai. Industrial designs of all kinds required for any sector will be made available in the proposed design district, " Dr Narayan said.
He said that a Bengaluru Design Festival will be held here.
The Minister visited the Dubai Design district to explore the Design, Art and technology ecosystem.
Narayan said that a delegation from the GCC countries will visit the state in November to sign several Memoranda of Understandings on various investment proposals.
"Through Dubai, the Government of Karnataka intends to broad base its reach and strengthen its relationship with other GCC countries, " he said.
Narayan said that Gulf Islamic Investment (GII) plans to set up its office in Bengaluru to further strengthen the Indo-UAE investment.