STATE RECEIVES Rs. 90,000 CRORE INVESTMENT PROPOSALS DURING LAST TWO YEARS; CM - 3/10/2007

Source: http://www.wbgov.com/e-gov/English/DepartmentFrame.asp?showPage=PressReleases/PressRelease.asp

Press Releases for the Month of October, 2007

Investment proposals are pouring in for different sectors in the State especially, Steel, Food Processing, Horticulture, Fisheries, Leather and Hosieries. So far Rs. 90,000 crore investment proposals have been received by the State Commerce & Industries Department, Chief Minister, Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee while inaugurating the 120th Annual General Meeting of BNCCI at Kolkata today (03.10.2007) stated this. Shri Bhattacharjee also said that our State's agricultural surplus is being wastage due to lack of market-mechanism. He urged the Central Government to spend 6% of the total GDP on human development and 2% on health care. He also categorically mentioned that our farmers are not getting remunerative prices for their corps for which they are committing suicide in Maharasthra, Andhra Predesh and some other parts of the country. He also pointed out that though the GDP rate has been increased by 2.5% still there is hardly any scope for employment generation in the country. On the contrary, the rate of job opportunity in the whole country has been declined by 4% taking into account of both the public and private sectors.

The Chief Minister announced in the meeting that 6 Steel Plants are going to be commissioned within a very short time from now. A working group has to be constituted for over-seeing the possibilities of the down-stream industries in this sector. Fish processing, Leather complex in Bantala and Dhantala (North Bengal) and Hosiery industries as well have an ample scope for development in the State. The proposal for modernisation of the Kolkata Airport (Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport) has been accepted by the Central Civil Aviation Ministry. The modernisation work has to be completed by 2010. A Deep Sea-port project has been cleared off by the centre recently. The Central Government has also approved the East-West Metro Rail project which will ply from Sector -V of the Salt Lake to Howrah Station, he reiterated.

Lufthansa Airlines which has withdrawn its daily flights from Kolkata is now planning to reintroduce it, while Air France is not lagging behind, sooner or later it will start functioning from Kolkata. Air India also would like to have flights from Kolkata to some other new destinations in the neighbouring countries like Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore. The Chief Minister was of the opinion to have two small air-ports in Kanchrapara and Barrackpore for domestic and business purposes. A proposal in this regard has been sent to the Civil Aviation Ministry, Govt. of India. Kolkata-Cooch Behar flight will also be operational from November this year, he stated. China is going to reopen its consulate office by the end of this year in Kolkata.

Shri Bhattacharjee described how IISCO & MMMC, Dunlop and Coal India have been revived. The State Government has a key-role to play in this respect. Regarding SEZ(Special Economic Zone) Shri Bhattacharjee said that China is having only 6 SEZ while India is proposed to have as many as 400 SEZ all over the country. Partially Criticising the Centre's policy for having so many SEZ through out the country, he urged the Central Government to rethink over the matter. He was also in favour of formulating a constructive policy on land use for this purpose.

Smt. Santa Ghosh, President BNCCI and Shri K.K.Navada incoming President of BNCCI also spoke on the occasion.