bhubaneswar shedding its image of being in the grip of abject poverty debilitating starvation and frequent child sales odisha has in recent years taken a big leap on the road to growth and prosperity by adopting certain fiscal corrective measures and attracting huge private capital said speakers at the resurgent odisha seminar organized by the times of india here on friday chief minister naveen patnaik and experts from different fields said the state had become a favoured destination for investors both from within and outside india and has the potential to become a gateway to jharkhand bihar chhattisgarh madhya pradesh and uttar pradesh naveen said the states economy was stagnant and a serious fiscal crisis existed in 2000 thereafter the states economy grew on an average at nine per cent during 20012010 odisha strives to sustain high growth momentum and faster poverty reduction with targeted growth rate of 9 per cent and agricultural growth target of 45 percent during the 12th plan he said naveen said odisha has attracted fdi worth over us 258 million by december 2010 the state has approved around 200 proposals for projects in aluminium auto components cement ferro alloys food processing paper power steel textile complexes and other sectors he disclosed planning commission member b k chaturvedi said the rate of odishas growth in the last decade was ahead of national average odisha today is an important and attractive destination for business he said indentifying the long coastline natural resources ports large number of engineering colleges and low cost labour as some of the states strengths the excabinet secretary said odisha should put in place an enabling policy mechanism improve its rail and road infrastructure augment port connectivity and further strengthen its power sector chaturvedi said foreign investors consider odisha a very attractive destination and informed that fdi proposals worth rs 49522 crore was filed in 201112 the highest in the country to any state in sectors like power metallurgy and services nalco cmd anshuman das and tata steel md h m nerurkar corroborated chaturvedis observations on states natural advantages like 480km coastline mineral reserves and tourism sites and observed that state had started doing very well economist pulin nayak said much of the growth was due to significant step up in the services sector some manufacturing but specially mining related activities jagi mangat panda md ortel communications limited said doing business in odisha had become far easier and advocated the need for an odisha entrepreneurial development centre to promote local entrepreneurs noting that odishas finances achieved a turnaround in 200304 states development commissioner jugal mohapatra said before 2000 the government had huge fiscal deficit with large part of earnings going on nonproductive committed expenditure such of salaries of employees thanks to commodityled investment and fiscal correction things have improved from 200304 he said renowned painter dinanath pathy took exception to the manner in which odishas cultural pursuits were suffering from lack of patronage and expressed the need for more investment in art infrastructure