3rd Bengal Global Business Summit begins in Kolkata

The third edition of the Bengal Global Business summit began on Friday. President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the summit followed by a speech from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

She welcomed the delegates to the summit by saying that this summit is a ‘milestone’ in Bengal’s industrial history.West  Bengal is an accelerator of India’s economy and has the most tax returns, she mentioned.

She promised assistance to all industrialists willing to invest in the state. E-payment of taxes, tariffs on the way.
Meanwhile,industrialist Sanjiv Goenka announces investment of Rs. 10,000 crore in West Bengal in next few years.

Some figures mentioned in the summit were: tax collection up 103%,Plan expenditure up 212%, GSDP up 123%, Cap-ex up 616%, Bengal growing 1 1/2 times faster than India.

In a setback ,Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley did not attend the event amid not-so-good current political relationship between the state and the Centre.

The relationship between West Bengal and the Union government has worsened of late, especially after the arrest of two TMC MPs Tapas Pal and Sudip Bandyopadhyay, in connection with the Rose Valley scam. After that, the state government arrested BJP state leader Jayprakash Majumdar in connection with alleged bribery connection.

Jaitley was scheduled to attend the event, but he was believed to have been asked by the party high command to stay away, according to sources.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, State Finance Minister Amit Mitra and industrialists Sanjiv Goenka, Sajjan Jindal and Kishore Biyani as well as cricketer Sourav Ganguly are present at the inaugural event.

The 2-day Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) is being attended by representatives from over 27 countries and 3,000 overseas delegates. Bengal is on the verge of creating history by setting new standards of economic and industry growth with this two-day event.

Partnered by nations like Japan, Poland, Italy and Germany, and with 23 other countries by its side, Bengal is gaining global recognition as an industrial powerhouse. Multiple business delegations from North America, Europe and Asia, are also to be present at the Summit, to join Bengal in its journey to new horizons of growth.

Source: Kolkata24x7