The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized an Interactive Session with Mr. Thomas Vajda, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for South Asian Affairs, Department of State, Washington DC on 1st December 2017 in the Chamber premises. The theme of the discussions was Regional Connectivity and Trade.

Mr. Thomas Vajda was accompanied by Mr. Craig L Hall, U.S. Consul General in Kolkata; Mr. Prasenjit Gupta, Consul for Political & Economic Affairs, U.S. Consulate General in Kolkata and Mr. Jonathan T. Ward, Principal Commercial Officer, U.S. Consulate General in Kolkata.

Mr. Ambarish Dasgupta, Past President, The Bengal Chamber shared the Chamber’s insights on Regional Connectivity. His address included Global Value Chain (GVC) and West Bengal’s potentiality to explore the advantage of GVC, with its strategic location and MSME focus for the economic development of not only the State or the Country but also the Region of South and South East Asia. Mr. Dasgupta’s address was followed by a presentation by Mr. Subhodip Ghosh, Director General, The Bengal Chamber on the initiatives being made by South and South East Asian Countries for developing multimodal connectivity for a shared economy and how West Bengal is featuring prominently in this landscape.

Mr. Thomas Vajda, who was most impressed with the Chamber’s presentation, shared his perspectives on trade relationship between USA and India and addressed issues like potentiality of West Bengal and North East, entrepreneurship for Global Economic Development, influence of China as an emerging superpower, market access of US companies in India, India’s IT industry and prospect of US technologies for Smart Cities, Digital India, Make in India Missions, US crude oil being purchased by India and other issues.