West Bengal received investment proposals worth Rs 17,000 crores, on the first day of the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) from leading industrialists of the country.
Reliance Industries’ chairman Mukesh Ambani, announced an investment of Rs 5,000 crores in retail and petroleum outlets, while JSW Group’s chief Sajjan Jindal, said the state would receive investments worth Rs 10,000 crores in cement capacity expansion, steel, paints and power over the next three to four years.
RP Sanjiv Goenka Group chairman Sanjiv Goenka, said he would make an investment of Rs 1,000 crores in power distribution network, while Adventz Group chairman Saroj Poddar, also announced an investment of Rs 1,000 crores in the state. Steel magnate LN Mittal of Arcelor Mittal, said he plans to bring his family foundation activity in West Bengal, which works in the area of child nutrition.
See also: Bengal announces housing scheme for five lakh people
A clutch of industrialists, like Future Group chairman Kishore Biyani, top banker Uday Kotak and foreign delegates, attended the summit that concludes on January 17, 2018. The showpiece investment summit, however, was bereft of any participation from the central government ministers or officials. That did not deter the industrialists to heap praise on Bengal, with India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani calling it nothing short of a ‘miracle’ that the state has adopted a change in mindset to welcome industries. Ambani added that Reliance would work with ‘multiple partners, to explore setting up of next generation, state-of-the-art electronics manufacturing facilities and make West Bengal the hub for innovation and hi-tech technologies for consumer devices such as mobile phones, set-top boxes, and other devices’. He said his company had already invested Rs 15,000 crores in the last two years in the state, towards the Jio network rollout.
Yearning for more investments in the state, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee urged them to come in droves and invest here. “West Bengal is the investment destination now. The state is strategically located and serves as a gateway to the north-east and the ASEAN region,” she said. She added that the state government was spending heavily on social and physical infrastructure.
“Please consider West Bengal as your home and come and invest here,” she said, adding that there will be no discrimination and no intimidation, for industrialists willing to invest here. “I can assure one thing. Bengal will not deprive anyone,” she said. Banerjee said the state, which was once synonymous with bandhs, had not lost a single man-day in the past six years and her government was against strikes. The state had also emerged on the top in terms of the MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) sector and climbed up the rankings, on the ease of doing business, she pointed out.
The summit has partner countries like China, Poland, South Korea, Italy and UK, among others. The two-day event, held in the sprawling International Convention Centre built by a government body, also saw a string of foreign delegates holding B2B meetings, with local business leaders during the day.
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