The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry along with Bharat Chamber of Commerce, Calcutta Chamber of Commerce, CREDAI - Bengal, Howrah Chamber of Commerce and Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce, organized a seminar on “Bengal –Accelerating Growth” on 24th October, 2017 at Uttirna.

Speaking during the Inaugural Session, Dr. Amit Mitra, Hon’ble Minister-in-Charge, Finance, Industry, Commerce & Enterprises & MSME and Textiles, Government of West Bengal, who was also the Chief Guest, highlighted the positive growth indicators currently visible - as evident from 12% growth in state GDP from 2011, a manifold growth in bank lending from 2011 with special focus on MSME, where MSME lending itself constitutes INR 94,153 crores of total lending of INR 1,82,026 crores and three times growth in outstanding bank credit. Dr Mitra also focused on the ease of doing business - an extremely important aspect in creating a favorable business environment for the investors. He emphasized on BRAP (Business Reform Action Plan) which is a World Bank aided assessment of state implementation of business reforms as an indicator of favorable business environment constituting of parameters like labour related regulations, property, environment, single window system, time bound and online services. He also stated that in the assessment, West Bengal has already complied with 332 points in the 372 point system. Adding to the momentum of positive growth, he spoke about the newly built business convention centre at Rajarhat, the Financial and Legal service hub in Kolkata, Deep sea port, revival of Haldia Petrochemicals, increase in the exports of fish-feed, Gems and Jewelry Park, four effluent treatment plants that are scheduled to come up at the leather hub at Bantala, the INR 1000 crore investments in leather and an increased connectivity in terms of manifold increase in the number of departures from the Kolkata airport.

His address was further substantiated by the Guests of Honour, Dr Partha Chatterjee, Hon’ble Minister-in-Charge, School Education, Higher Education, Parliamentary Affairs, Biotechnology, Science and Technology, Government of West Bengal who focused on the creation of human capital through increase in the number of higher educational institutes and universities and ShriGoutam Deb, Hon’ble Minister-in-Charge, Department of Tourism and North Bengal Development, Government of West Bengal, who highlighted the growing infrastructure support in the region. The landmark mega tourism initiatives at Gajaldoba were specifically elaborated.

In his Special Concluding Address, Shri Rajiva Sinha, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises & Textiles, Government of West Bengal spoke about the support rendered by the Government for the growth of the MSME sector and that the services could be further modified as per the dynamics of the changes in the business environment based upon the feedback of the business fraternity.

The plenary session consisted of Industry leaders who spoke about their business success stories in Bengal. The esteemed array of speakers included Mr Suresh G Menon, Vice President and General Manager - Eastern Region, Tata Consultancy Services Limited; Mr. Sagar Daryani, Co-Founder & CEO, Wow Momo Foods Pvt. Ltd; Dr. Anup Sinha, Director, Heritage Business School; Mr. Sunil Kajaria, President-Strategy, Keventer Agro Limited and Mr. Satyaki Ghosh, CEO, Domestic Textiles, Aditya Birla Group. Each of them highlighted their sectoralplans and expanding operations in West Bengal and the stellar State Government support. They also highlighted their future business plans and future investment plans in the State.

The Presidents of all the participating Chambers of Commerce also shared their views on the positive growth phase that the State is poised towards. In the same context, Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, President, The Bengal Chamber also shared his views as MD & CEO, Bandhan Bank on the ease of doing business in Bengal and the unstinted supportof the State Government received by the Bank in its seamless functioning as a financial institution headquartered out of Kolkata and based out of Bengal.

The seminar on the one hand, uplifted the positive business spirit in Bengal and on the other, left scope for future courses of such positive dialogues between the Government and Business Fraternity in such forums.