'Bengal received investment proposals of Rs 3.42 lakh cr'
Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said the state received investment proposals worth Rs 3.42 lakh crore with a total employment potential of 40 lakh during this year's business summit.
Addressing the valedictory session of the Bengal Global Business Summit at the Biswa Bangla International Convention Centre, she said that a total of 137 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and Letters of Intent (LoI) were signed for the investments.
She also announced that the next edition of BGBS in 2023 would be held from February 1-3.
"The current edition of the BGBS has got the highest-ever investment proposals among the six summits held in the state till date. This was the first successful global investment mega event to be held in the country after the unprecedented Covid pandemic. Bengal has shown the way and now everyone should do it. Disasters like Covid will come and go but development should not stop. Life and livelihood should continue," Banerjee said addressing the session.
Banerjee, from the stage of the BGBS, virtually inaugurated a big state-of-the-art packing centre of Flipkart at Haringhata in Nadia spanned across 100 acre in presence of the e-commerce company's CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy. Over 1,11,000 jobs will be generated from this unit.
According to Banerjee, 40 percent people have become jobless in the country while in Bengal, 40 percent more people have been employed. The MSME sector has been the game-changer with 1 crore 33 lakh people working in this sector. Terming the BGBS as a 'global industrial festival', the Chief Minister said: "Bengal has stability, is safe and sound and has global facilities. Please keep in touch with us. Keep Bengal in your thoughts and please have faith in Bengal. The state will not let you down. Bengal will give you results," she added addressing the industrialists.
She further maintained that she believes that a united family is a successful family and reiterated that unity in diversity is Bengal's strength. "We do not bulldoze. We do not divide. Unity is our main strength," she added.
ITC chairman Sanjiv Puri announced an investment of Rs 3,000 crore in the next few years while Harsh Neotia — the co-chairman of the service sector formed by the state government — said 42 MoUs and 8 LOIs that have been signed in the sector will entail an investment of Rs 2,700 crore.
Noted cardiac surgeon Devi Shetty announced his plans of setting up a 1000-bed hospital for advanced heart surgery, orthopaedics, oncology and some other disciplines in Kolkata.
The confidence and enthusiasm about Bengal were visible from the huge participation of delegates from India and abroad who expressed their business interests in the state. Around 4,300 delegates participated in the summit from 42 countries with over 500 international delegates attending the mega event.
Ambassadors from Italy, Malaysia, Kenya, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Fiji, Australia, Japan, Poland, Finland, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan joined the summit.
Notable multi-national companies like Microsoft, IBM, Adani Group, ITC, KfW, Tata-Hitachi, Gainwell Engineering, LOGOS, Wacker Metroark Chemicals (WMC), Big Dutchman International GmbH, Meyn expressed their business interests in Bengal.
Banerjee launched a number of portals at the summit, including the revamped Shilpa Sathi portal — a single-window portal to provide statutory clearances for new and running businesses in the state, Export Facilitation Portal — a one-stop portal to provide information on market opportunity, prevailing tariffs, export potential products, and certification agencies for international exports to all producers, sellers and exporters of the state, the state portal for an online exhibition that provides a cost-effective platform for seller/exporter to register their products free of cost with individual product features, including photos, videos, price, and availability and Nijaswini Portal — the SHG portal that will serve as an umbrella wherein different SHGs promoted and nurtured under various departments, can be centrally reviewed for their effectiveness and outputs.
During the two-day event, two sectoral committees were also set up, which would be co-chaired by industrialists in the fields of agriculture and allied services, MSME, exports, services sector and tourism.
She said that these committees would meet once a month and give suggestions on sectoral policy changes for the creation of more jobs and investment opportunities.
The West Industrial Promotion Board will discuss the policy changes suggested by these panels, Banerjee added.
A tea-table book encapsulating the state's 22 GI tagged products and showcasing Bengal's agro heritage, its handcrafted wonders, and its delectable sweetmeats; a compendium of reforms under the 'Ease of Doing Business' highlighting the reduction of compliance burden on business, ensuring online service delivery in a time-bound manner, and real-time and automatic grant of licenses/registrations in defined cases, was also launched.
