Mamata arrives in Germany, to explore investment opportunities

A high powered official and business delegation from West Bengal, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is in Germany to promote closer engagement and cooperation in various fields and explore trade and investment opportunities between Germany and the state. 

The chief minister  who arrived in Germany on Monday night would be addressing an exclusive Interactive Session on September 7 in Munich and a series of meetings with German business leaders are on the cards during her visit between September 5 -9.

State Finance Minister Amit Mitra invited German businessmen on Monday to attend the 3rd Bengal 

Global Business Summit (BGBS) scheduled to be held in the city on January 20 next year.

Mitra said that the past two editions were particularly successful and had attracted participation from 31 countries while he was addressing a seminar on Business Opportunities in Bengal in  Dusseldorf on Monday.

Sovan Chatterjee, Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said that steps had been taken to improve the infrastructure of Kolkata by making it greener and cleaner. He mentioned that a number of measures had also been taken to ease doing business in Bengal.

Gunther Horzetzky, state secretary, Minister of Economic Affairs, Energy, Industry, SMEs and Crafts of the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia said that a working group might be formed to take forward the discussions and chalk out a roadmap for closer engagement between the two regions. 

Raveesh Kumar Consul General and FICCI president  Harsh Neotia also addressed the meeting. 

Amit Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee along with a 29-member business delegation reached Duesseldorf on Monday where Mitra held a meeting with Norbert Walter Borjans, Finance Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia discussing bilateral issues.

Sovan Chatterjee held a meeting with Giesel Thomas, Mayor of North Rhine-Westphalia and invited him to the BGBS in 2017. Chatterjee initiated a dialogue with the city of Duesseldorf for a sister city partnership. Mayor Giesel said that he would take up the matter at the next council meeting and once it is through, a formal agreement would be signed.

Four senior bureaucrats- Rajiva Sinha, additional chief secretary, MSME and Textiles, HK Dwivedi, principal secretary Finance department, Krishna Gupta, principal secretary, commerce and industry and Surendra Gupta, managing director of WBIDC- are accompanying the business delegation.