MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries has outlined a three-year investment plan of 1.5 trillion rupees (USD26 billion) to further expand its businesses which range from gas production and oil refining to selling groceries and vegetables, reported The Wall Street Journal.
The plan Chairman Mukesh Ambani presented at a meeting of shareholders is bigger than what he announced a year ago, when he said the company would spend 1.0 trillion rupees over five years.
Mr. Ambani, India's richest man, said Reliance would invest in all the major sectors it operates, including in oil and gas, retail and communications. Most of the projects he mentioned are in India. Internationally, a key focus area is shale gas, because production from its three joint-venture shale-gas fields in the U.S. is helping the company offset falling natural gas output in India.
"Reliance has embarked on the largest investment program in its history," Mr. Ambani said at the meeting, but didn't provide specific details of the plans, including on launching its much-awaited broadband communications services.
Still, the investment plan of India's fourth-largest company by market value highlights its confidence in the country's economic growth, which slowed to its weakest in a decade in the fiscal year ended on March 31 but is expected to gather pace again from this year. The government, which has been facing criticism for slow policy reforms, has taken several steps since late 2012 to boost economic expansion and these include fast clearances for infrastructure and industrial projects and easier rules for foreign investment in some sectors.
As MRC informed previously, earlier Reliance unveiled an USD18 billion investment plan for India over the next five years. Besides, in late 2012, Reliance Industries announced its plans to expand capacity at its refineries in the western state of Gujarat.
Reliance Industries is one of the world"s largest producers of polymers. The company"s polymer production in 2010-11 (polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride) made 4,094 kilo tonnes.
MRC