Maharashtra has re-established its supremacy in attracting the largest number of foreign investment collaboration proposals as well as the foreign direct investment approvals from the overseas business since July 1991.

This is as per a study by Assocham. Maharashtra's track record in securing foreign investment collaboration proposals and FDI approvals has been four times higher than other economically leading states.

The study which is based on the information collected from the latest available official records of the government suggests that the overseas business showed maximum interest in parking its investment proposals in Maharashtra for which the government approved investment proposals numbering 4663, beginning August 1991 to November 2003.

These investment proposals roughly involve the foreign direct investment of Rs 5033.4 crore (Rs 50.33 billion). Whereas, the foreign investment proposals cleared for the economically advanced states of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and others by the government has been less than 1200 in numbers.

The number of foreign direct investment proposals approved for the states of Delhi, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were little over half of the Maharashtra during the period.

The reason attributed for Maharashtra attracting the highest number of foreign investment proposals during the last 13 years include the overall industrial climate of the industry, which has been conducive to overseas investment.

The performance of the southern states in securing the foreign investment proposals during the period has too been significant. The southern states took an upturn in the nineties and accelerated its growth to 6 per cent.