Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar today said the work on establishment of the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) would commence before the state goes for the assembly polls early next year.

"The work on ITIR project will commence before the next assembly elections," he told reporters after inaugurating BangaloreIT.biz 2012 in Bangalore.

Shettar said the state government has started preliminary notification for acquiring land for setting up the ITIR in outskirts of the city.

The project would be implemented with Central assistance and would come up near Devanahalli, he added.

Karnataka contributes about 40 per cent of the IT exports of the country and the state has recorded IT exports of over Rs 1.35 lakh crores during the financial year 2011-12, Shettar said.

Out of the 25 lakh software professionals employed in the country, over 8 lakh are employed in Bangalore alone, he said, adding the contribution of IT to Karnataka's GDP is over 20 per cent.

Promoting semiconductor and electronic hardware manufacturing are expected to give a big thrust to chip designing, VLSI, Solar PV, LED, Mobile handset and other electronic gadgets manufacturing, he said.

"The IT policy has been revised to include telecom sector and to position Bangalore as R&D and Innovation hub," he said.

The state has also released a Policy on Animation and Gaming to give a boost to this sector, having prospects of reaching Rs 10,000 crores in revenues next year.

"The Animation and Gaming sector will further strengthen the IT prowess of the state," he said.

Talking about investor-friendly Karnataka, Shettar said in 2010 GIM event, 389 MoUs worth Rs 3.92 lakh crore of investment were signed, whiile in GIM 2012 record investment proposals of Rs 7.6 lakh crore were received in the form of 730 MoUs.

"While the first edition has the potential to create about 7 lakh jobs, the second edition is likely to add 15 lakh jobs. The IT sector being labour-intensive has the potential to create a large number of jobs," he said.