The Hindu Business Line : Bengal to woo foreign capital and NRIs, says CM

THE West Bengal Chief Minister, , Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is prepared to visit any destination in the US in order to attract fresh investment, provided there are firm investment proposals from the American companies as well as non-resident Indians (NRIs).

"I am not the type of person to only attend functions organised by the Prabashi Bengalis there."

Answering wide ranging questions at the interactive session of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce

(East India council) here, Mr Bhattacharjee admitted that the CPI(M)-led United Front Government in the State did commit mistakes from 1967 to 1969, spearheading " militant" trade union movements, thereby, causing a damage to the State's economy.

He said history would not repeat itself again. Local bureaucrats had been asked to work professionally, while trade union leaders had been advised to change their attitudes.

The unions would no longer be allowed to disrupt production and harass managerial personnel. In a globally competitive market economy , improvement of productivity should be the main focus of managements and unionizsed workers.

The Chief Minister was happy to note that the State's new industrial policy was appreciated by leading industrialists in the country and abroad. Many Japanese companies were actively considering investing in various projects in the sphere of infrastructure and downstream petrochemicals, not excluding magnetic trains and setting up entertainment parks.

He said Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, which has been operating a chemical plant at Haldia for the last two years without a man-day being lost, proposed to develop an island, near Haldia, as an entertainment park for the Japanese tourists.

Mr Bhattacharjee said he was given to understand that Mr Alfred N. Ford, the great-grandson of Mr Henry Ford, was keen to invest about Rs 600 crore in a social project in the State. He requested the Junior Ford to set up an automobile component manufacturing unit or automobile assembling unit in the State.

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