Jester Brodin, CEO of Ingka Group (Ikea), on Wednesday, met Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai at the World Economic Forum meet in Davos and held discussions in the backdrop of an Ikea store being opened in Bengaluru.
The Ikea store (furniture) is set to be inaugurated at Nagasandra in June and Mr. Brodin invited the Chief Minister for the event.
The India head office of Ikea is in Bengaluru and issues related to extensive use of bamboo and other locally available raw materials in making of furniture came up for discussion during the meeting, according to a release from the Chief Minister’s Office.
The company had said that Karnataka was a “priority market” and IKEA India would invest over ₹2,000 crore in the long term and nearly ₹1,000 crore in the Bengaluru store.
“I am pleased to announce that @IKEAIndia will be opening their flagship store in Nagasandra in June 2022. We are also in talks with the organisation to encourage local manufacturing, thus boosting employment and economic growth,” Mr. Bommai tweeted later.
Breakfast meeting
Heads of major multinational corporations and prominent non-resident Indian entrepreneurs participated in a breakfast meeting hosted by the Chief Minister in Davos. Founder of Indiaspora in the USA M.R. Rangaswami, chairman of Indorama Corporation in Singapore Prakash Lohia, managing director of Hitachi Japan Bharat Kaul, and chairman of VPS Healthcare in the UAE Shamsheer Valayil were among those he met.
During the day, Mr. Bommai held talks with Axis Bank managing director and CEO Amitabh Chaudhry over upgrading of some of the engineering colleges and universities in the State under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes. The Chief Minister also held talks on investment opportunities in Karnataka, said the release.
Mr. Bommai, who met the head of Nokia, suggested making good use of the opportunities in the State for the manufacture of telecommunication products. Nokia has its biggest research centre in Bengaluru with over 7,000 technocrats engaged in research related to 5G, advanced 5G, and 6G technologies. The Chief Minister held talks with top honchos of PayPay too.
