BGBS 2023: ‘Bengal offers tremendous opportunity for tourism to trade’

Kolkata: In an interactive session on doing business with Malaysia in Bengal Global Business Summit 2023, Sanjay Budhia, Consul of Malaysia, Co-Chairman of International Trade & Logistics-BGBS emphasised that Bengal offers tremendous opportunity for tourism to trade.

In the recently-concluded BGBS 2023, Malaysia was a partner country, symbolising the shared commitments in economic cooperation, deepening partnership and advancing new areas of growth. There is considerable goodwill for Malaysia at people-to-people level with cooperation in the field of education, traditional medicine, travel and tourism and culture, Budhia said.

Both Malaysian and Bengal-based companies have explored investment opportunities in their counterpart regions, particularly in sectors like IT services and software development. Upcoming cable landing station at Digha will have connections made to Malaysia also, boosting the business activities. There are 11 flights weekly between West Bengal and Kuala Lumpur, he said.

Among those who took part in the session included — (left to right) Shamilah Perumal, minister (Economic), H E Dato’ Muzafar Shah Mustafa, High Commissioner, Designate of Malaysia to India, Sanjay Budhia, Consul of Malaysia, Co-Chair of International Trade & Logistics-BGBS and Surendra Gupta, IAS, Principal Secretary, Public Health Engineering Department, Govt of West Bengal. Malaysia is an important regional partner in South-East Asia, more so for Bengal due to its locational advantage and close proximity and easy connectivity to Malaysia compared to other Indian states.