BGBS pays off: Bengal fructifies Rs 4.45 lakh cr in large industries

Kolkata: The Bengal government has already fructified around Rs 4.45 lakh crore in large industries out of the total investment proposals received by the government in the last five years of Bengal Global Business Summits (BGBS).

State Finance minister Amit Mitra in his recent budget statement claimed that the state government has seen a huge amount of success in all the five editions of BGBS and received a large number of investment proposals. Out of this, around Rs 4.45 crore investments have already been pumped into large industries across the state.

Mitra's budget speech also presented the Central government data where the Union Commerce and Industries minister corroborated the fact that Bengal has received a foreign capital investment of Rs 22,267 crore in the last 8 years. This proves that Bengal is surging forward, Mitra's budget statement said.

Bengal has secured the first position in terms of total investment received by the state in small and medium industries through Co-operative and commercial banks.

The Finance minister's statements point that the government has seen an investment of Rs 2,43,419 crore in small and medium industries in the last 8 years through co-operatives which is the highest in the country.

It may be mentioned here that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee brought in the concept of organising BGBS to encourage investment in the state. It has given an impetus to the growth in the industrial and other sectors with more foreign money being pumped into the sectors.

State Finance minister also presented a comparative study to show how the Bengal government has taken the industrial growth to a new height when the Union government has failed miserably to secure industrial growth in the country. Industrial growth in India during 2019-20 (April-November) remained around 0.6 per cent while the figure in Bengal is five times higher than the national growth rate.

Bengal government has stood first in various other sectors like the ease of doing business (EoDB), rural housing, small scale industries, rural road, minority scholarship, skill development and E-tendering, read the budget statement of Mitra.

"In the last 8 years, considerable work has been done by our government in the field of good governance and economic reforms under different social protection schemes for the citizens. Even after repaying the huge burden of loan and at the same time persistent non-co-operation of the Central government, we are determined to introduce various social development schemes for the citizens," read the budget statement.