Bengal govt holds roadshow in Chennai ahead of BGBS

Kolkata: The Bengal government on Tuesday held a roadshow in Chennai to deliberate on the trade and investment opportunities in the state and further strengthen bilateral relations and cooperation ahead of the seventh edition of the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) which is scheduled on November 21 and 22, in Kolkata.

Amit Mitra, Principal Chief Advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee delivered the keynote address and interacted with the senior officials from the business stakeholders.

He mentioned Bengal as the fourth largest economy (on the basis of Net Value Added as per RBI) in India with close to 17.50 lakh crore GDP.

He also mentioned that there is a huge market potential with over 93 million people as well as a large number in its northeastern neighbourhood. Furthermore, he stressed on the game changers in Bengal including in the fields of mining (upcoming Deocha Pachami coal blocks, natural gas and oil explorations ), IT & ITes (new data centres & cable landing station at Digha), logistics hubs ( Flipkart & Amazon) , strategic location of the state as well as the infrastructure and human capital of the state .

He said that Bengal is looking forward to collaboration with Chennai in areas like textile, food processing and IT.

Onkar Singh Meena, state principal secretary, Department of Agriculture, spoke on the scope for collaboration in the marine sector between Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

Saumitra Mohan, state secretary, Department of Transport, spoke on the scope of investible opportunities in e-mobility, surface transport, port and coastal shipping, inland water transport and air transport.

Y Ratnakara Rao, the state secretary, Department of Health & Family Welfare, mentioned that the focus in state healthcare are medical device manufacturing, pharma warehousing and logistics, yoga and naturopathy, superspeciality care, med-tech and startups among others.

The executive director of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Limited (WBIDC) said that apart from having the third largest road network, Bengal has a policy on new industrial and economic corridors. The state also has sector specific policies like tea tourism to foster balanced growth.

The event was held in association with ICC with major business stakeholders of Bengal and more than 200 industry participants from Chennai attending it.