Vibrant Gujarat Summit postponed due to COVID surge in India

The three-day global trade summit was to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 10.

New Delhi: The Gujarat government on Thursday decided to postpone the 10th edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, which was scheduled to be held from January 10-12, in view of the arising COVID-19 situation in the country.

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, after analysing the situation, has decided to postpone the 10th edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit as of now, to stop the spread of the COVID-19 and its new variant Omicron among people of the state, an official communication from the CM's said.

The three-day global summit, which was to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is seen as a significant way to attract investments as dignitaries and top CEO’s from in and abroad were to attend the mega event.

Foreign ministers from 15 countries, governors of four nations were set to participate in the inaugural ceremony. Other overseas guests included Tony Fountain, executive chairman of Nayara Energy; Toshihiro Suzuki, chairman of Suzuki Motor Corporation; and Tadashi Maeda, governor of Japan Bank for International Cooperation will also be in attendance.

Moreover, leading industrialists, including Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Sunil Bharti Mital, N Chandrasekharan, Ashok Hinduja and Harsh Goenka,  were supposed to attend the trade summit.

Meanwhile, on the COVID front, Gujarat on Wednesday crossed the 3,000-mark for the first time after May 26 last year with the addition of 3,350 infections, raising the state's tally to 8,40,643.

Gujarat reported 50 new cases of the Omicron variant on Wednesday, taking the tally of the new variant in the state to 204, as per the state health department.