Top industrialist Gautam Adani promised to invest Rs 10,000 crore in West Bengal in the coming days.
Kolkata: On the inaugural day of the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) held on Wednesday in Kolkata, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked the Centre not to create hurdles for the industrialists who want to invest in the state. She also asked Governor Jagdeep Dhankar to ensure the same.
Reiterating that no state in the country had dared to hold a business summit due to the global pandemic over the last two years, Banerjee said Bengal “is the gateway to eastern and north-eastern India, neighbouring Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal as well as South East Asia.”
Last week, Banerjee had said, “No state has dared to hold a business summit in the past two years in this Covid situation. West Bengal will be the first state to hold one. I believe there is no gain if there is no pain, so I have taken the risk. Fourteen countries will be participating. Industrialists should not be scared; they should be encouraged.”
In a tweet, Banerjee said, “The 6th edition of Bengal Global Business Summit 2022 opened today at the Biswa Bangla Convention centre. Saw overwhelming participation from 42 countries of which 14 are partner countries.”
Ahead of the inauguration, top industrialist Gautam Adani had a brief meeting with Banerjee and during his speech, he said, “We plan to invest rupees 10 thousand crore in West Bengal in the coming years. This will create more than 25,000 direct and indirect jobs in the state.”
Later in a tweet Adani said, “What an honour to be at #BGBS2022 and hear Hon’ble CM Mamata Didi lay out her bold vision for Bengal. This is the land that gave India some of its greatest Freedom Fighters. The Adani Group is committed to invest and make a difference to this great land of Bengal @MamataOfficial.”
The BGBS is being attended by several leading industrialists of the country like Adani, T V Narendran, Sanjib Puri, Sanjib Goenka and Sajjan Jindal, among others. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi was also present on the occasion.
The BGBS is an annual programme of the West Bengal government since 2017 and according to principal chief adviser to the CM and former state finance minister Amit Mitra, the state had received investment proposals of Rs 12.3 lakh crore through the BGBS from 2015 to 2019. The business summit could not be held in 2020 and 2021 due to the global pandemic.
