‘CM’s Dubai, Spain trip a leap towards strengthening Bengal’s economic growth’

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s recently concluded foreign trip is set to ensure the path of Bengal’s economic growth in the future with foreign investors taking up several initiatives in various fields.

Tempe Group has expressed interest in sourcing leather and non-leather products and getting their brand manufacturing done in Bengal.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her tour had a long and fruitful interaction with Jose Manual Pastor Flores, Director of Tempe. They discussed the possibility of setting up a dedicated park of around 100 Acres for their footwear production. The group also showed interest in procuring their textile and getting their apparel manufacturing done in Bengal.

The Chief Minister had expressed her desire for brands like Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Oysho etc., to source their textiles and fabrics from West Bengal.

She also urged them to explore outsourcing some of their manufacturing to Bengal. They had an extensive discussion on the facilities in the leather complex at Bantala and the discussion was joined by Ramesh Juneja, President of CLC Tanners Association & Regional Chairman of Council for Leather Export (CLE).

The group was highly impressed with the facilities available at the complex. Chief Minister Banerjee invited the Inditex group to the BGBS 2023 to explore further collaboration opportunities.

State government on Tuesday issued a press statement giving the details of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s foreign tour and what Bengal has received out of it.

The Bengal government signed an MoU with La Liga to develop a football training academy here in the state. Banerjee held a meeting with the La Liga President and his team in Spain.

The focus of the meeting centred on strengthening relations between the two regions by linking sports and cultural institutions, promoting women’s football, professionalising the football ecosystem and supporting the overall growth of football. La Liga has agreed to serve as a partner and a platform for the development of talented young players as well as various sports training projects in the state in coordination with the local Football Federations and other local grassroots football organisations.

Banerjee met with Ashraf Ali, Executive Director, Lu Lu Group International in Dubai. The group has 234 retail stores in the UAE, India, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Egypt, Malaysia, and Indonesia. She discussed the potential areas of interest and investment by the multinational group in Bengal.

Lu Lu Group expressed interest in collaborating with Bengal to set up a world-class Mall in Newtown, Kolkata, setting counters of Biswa Bengal products in their malls worldwide, back-linkages for procurement of fruits and vegetables for all their stores from Bengal and setting up food processing centres, fish processing, poultry, dairy and meat processing, skill development projects in the state.

Chief Secretary H K Dwivedi and Vandana Yadav, Principal Secretary, Industry, Commerce and Enterprises department met Irais Souto Rodríguez, Head of Global Markets and Ms. Elisa Meléndez, Head of Undergraduate Programs of IE University in Madrid and discussed collaboration initiatives. They discussed collaboration opportunities in areas like student exchange programs, Job-related training and capacity building, and education scholarships for students. The two sides discussed the possibility of Spanish language learning by students in Bengal as well as teacher training in the Spanish language.

The government has recently brought out the new State Education Policy and learning of foreign languages forms an integral part of it. The Publishers & Booksellers Guild (organisers of the International Kolkata Book Fair) signed an MoU with the Madrid Book Fair for the promotion and marketing of books, as well as dissemination of information related to books and fostering bilateral cultural relations.