Gandhinagar, May 15: A delegation of industrialists, led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, left today on a five-day tour to South Korea to market Gujarat. The tour to South Korea is aimed at wooing several leading industrial and business houses there to invest in the state. The delegation comprises 31 industrialists apart from top officials like Chief Secretary Sudhir Mankad, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister K Kailashnathan, Principal Secretary (Industries and Mines) D Rajagopalan and GSFC Managing Director P K Taneja.

Prominent among delegates are Reliance Group's president (Corporate Affairs) Parimal Nathwani, Essar chief Shashi Ruia, Adani Group's Gautam Adani, Torrent Group's Sudhir Mehta, Nirma's Hiren Patel, Rajendra Shah of Shah Alloys, J U Patel of Orpat and Harsha Engineering, Rajesh Shah of Vadilal and Rajeev Chaba of General Motors.

Modi and the delegates accompanying him will visit from May 16 19 cities like Seoul, Pusan, Geumjeongsan and key engineering and automobile projects, located in different parts of South Korea, and have one-to-one as well as group meetings with industrialists and administrative heads there. They will also visit Kalpasar-like dam project set up in that country.

Mr Modi could invite Korean expertise and investment to tap the the potential of investing in shipping industry given Gujarat's 1,600 km-long coastline.

UNI