Indian Economy News

Rs 2.35 lakh crore takeaway from business summit; infrastructure gets big push

Kolkata: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday made it clear that demonetisation had failed to dampen the spirit of the 3rd Bengal Global Business Summit while announcing investment proposals worth Rs 2.35 lakh crore on the concluding day of the event. "We have received commitment for Rs 2.35 lakh crore.This is despite demonetisation and remonetisation," Mamata told the audience at the plenary session on Saturday morning. 

Till the previous evening, investment proposals had touched only Rs 30,000 crore. Central government investments, including expansion of Metro rail projects in Kolkata and suburbs worth Rs 23,590 crore has been included in the list of proposed projects that include proposals in sectors like manufacturing, infrastructure, MSME, urban development, transport, IT, telecom and hospitality.

Manufacturing and infrastructure took the lead with proposed investment of Rs 61,765 crore, followed by medium, small and micro enterprises (MSME) sector. According to the government, the biggest proposal came from Chinese firm TEB Technology , that will invest Rs 27,200 crore in Texmaco to manufacture MRTS rakes. Currently, TEB operates MRTS in Beijing and Philadelphia. The next biggest was in infrastructure and real estate where Shapoorji Pallonji group has committed Rs 24,000 crore. One of the big-ticket in vestments is an in dustrial growth corridor triangle for Rs 22,000 crore.

The other major proposals include Howrah MSME hub for Rs 18,000 crore, Rs 12,500 crore by Reliance in telecom, Tajpur port for Rs 12,000 crore, RP-SG Group investment in FMCG for Rs 10,000 crore, truck terminal and Paribahan Nagar at Rajarhat for Rs 10,000 crore and theme-based township by Ambuja for Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 12,000 crore investment by Reliance in telecom infrastructure. Interestingly, unlike last year where a lot of projects was announced by the Centre, this time majority was from private entrepreneurs and that include a fare amount of foreign direct investments. Besides TB Technologies, FDI may come from Cedrus of Russia, Auto Haus of China, ATTIVO and in mining.
 
Mamata did not elaborate on the investments but mentioned about an MoU between Handong University of Korea and West Bengal Housing Infrastructure De velopment Corporation for green cities, Norway showing interest in maritime projects, Italy keen on leather and manufacturing and Japan on drinking water project.

Making a distinction between claims and reality at such investment meets in other states, Mamata remarked: "Instead of touting fi gures like Rs 50 lakh crore or Rs 60 lakh crore, the ultimate result is zero. We have got Rs 2.35 lakh crore. This is enough for us."

Referring to the past two editions of BGBS in which the state had received proposals worth over Rs 4.93 lakh crore, the CM said 40% were in the implementation stage. "Any project takes some time to implement. One has to prepare the DPR and then do other studies. We announce only those projects that will be implemented or have commitment for implementation," she added.

Later state finance and industries minster Amit Mitra said that success of a business summit largely depends on business to business meetings and in case of BGBS this time, 425 B2B meetings were held.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

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