Come to Bengal, Mamata tells German investors

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday urged top bosses of BMW to invest in Bengal. Banerjee was addressing a meeting attended by German industrialists, members of various chambers of commerce and officials of the global car giant at a hotel in Munich.

The Chief Minister urged  BMW officials to invest in e-rickshaws. A Bengal delegation, led by state Finance minister Amit Mitra, had visited the BMW factory in Munich on Tuesday.

A three-hour discussion took place between the Bengal delegation and German car-maker. BMW bosses told the Bengal team that in the next five years, electric and battery-operated cars, motorbikes and hybrid cars would rule the global car market.

Banerjee is accompanied by 29 businessmen from Kolkata. In Wednesday’s meeting, over 120 German businessmen and officials took part.

The Chief Minister said Bengal was the ideal destination for investment as it was the gateway to Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Banerjee assured prospective investors that land was not a problem in Bengal and its industrial growth was far ahead of other states in the country. She explained how the state had made rapid strides in agriculture and that there was an abundance of  skilled talent.

Banerjee urged the industrialists to invest in automobile, leather and power sectors and added that there was no shortage of electricity in the state. She was accompanied by Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, and Harshvardhan Neotia, national president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FICCI).

The Chief Minister assured German industrialists that the state would roll out all possible assistance if they proposed to invest in Bengal. She said Bengal was ‘industry -friendly’ and the one window system introduced by the state government  had eased the procedure to set up industries in the state.

She also invited German delegates to the Bengal Global Business Summit, scheduled to be held in January 2017.

There was a lot of enthusiasm among the German industrialists to know about the investment climate in Bengal. Amit Mitra had briefed them on the state’s growth trajectory after Mamata Banerjee  came to power in 2011. Photographs of great personalities from Bengal were put up at the hotel where the meeting was held in an atmosphere of cordiality.