Mitra elated over investment in manufacturing & infrastructure

Kolkata: State Finance and Industry minister Amit Mitra expressed his delight over the highest investment proposal in the 4th edition of Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) in the Manufacturing and Infrastructure sector.

"Out of the total investment of Rs 2,19,925 crore, investment proposals of Rs 1,56,811 crore have been in the Manufacturing and Infrastructure sector- an area which our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been eyeing for investment for the last few years," Mitra said, adding that the proposals that have come in this edition of BGBS, are expected to offer jobs to more than 20 lakh people in the state.

According to Mitra, the investment proposal in the MSME sector has been Rs 52,952 crore, in Hospitality and Tourism Rs 1,483 crore, in IT and ITes Rs 1,146 crores, in ARD, Food Processing and Fisheries Rs 1,518 crore, while that in Health, Education and Skill Development has been Rs 6,015 crore.

The Food Processing and Horticulture sector topped the number of MoUs signed with 28, while Animal Resource Development (ARD) saw 30 MoUs, followed by Fisheries, which inked 19 MoUs.

It may be mentioned that the two-day summit witnessed the signing of 110 MoUs, 1,046 business-to-business (B2B) meetings and 40 business-to-government (B2G) meetings.

"The summit is a clear pointer to the fact that Bengal is being preferred by investors as an ideal place of investment. This is heartening as investments are hardly coming to other places with the country's GDP growth falling drastically," Mitra said.

The two-day summit also saw the announcement of three major policies in the form of Logistics Park Development and Promotion Policy, Export Promotion Policy and RoRo Operation Promotion Policy. An MoU was also signed by the state Transport department with Tirupati Vessels Pvt Ltd, for RoRo service from Garden Reach to some other places.

Elaborating on the important MoUs that were signed, Mitra informed that West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) signed one with National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, for setting up a state-of-the-art design centre in Kolkata.

Significant among the agreements that were signed with foreign companies, include that between Buurtzorg Netherlands, Praan Group Netherlands and Edugreen Education and Services for launching healthcare services.

It may be mentioned that a pilot project has been launched in Salt Lake, wherein job opportunities will be created for 3,000 trainee nurses and nursing attendants in two years.