The Hindu Business Line : Bid to promote Bengal as investment destination

THE Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) has forged a partnership with the newly-formed southern California-based The Overseas Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OBCCI) with a view to promoting West Bengal as an investment destination among potential investors in the US.

Addressing a news conference here today, Mr A. Lahiri, President of BCCI, said a memorandum of understanding had been signed by both the chambers for exchange of information and facilitation of bilateral trade.

The partnership has been incorporated under appropriate laws of the US to "facilitate bilateral trade, commerce and information exchange between members of the two signatory bodies and the nations they represent."

Mr Lahiri said the investment climate in West Bengal was just right and the need of the hour was to increase the visibility of the State in the US.

Both the BCCI and the OBCCI will work towards the formation of joint ventures with US companies in the State and disseminate information about new industrial initiatives here. The basic idea was to create a permanent forum to access West Bengal's needs and, through the initiative, have NRIs to play a larger role in the industrial development of the State, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, the President of OBCCI, Mr J. Chatterjee, said the chamber will appropriately package, position and market West Bengal to investors in the US. The State's knowledge capital was just right for US investment in engineering, IT and healthcare sectors, among other "high-margin" sectors.

Mr Chatterjee said, "Efforts to showcase West Bengal in the US have not been well organised in the past with very little pre-marketing or follow-up. We believe that efforts in this regard must be taken up at the business level and are less effective if they are taken up at the alumni level," he said in reference to initiatives taken by the IIT alumni network in the US.

According to him, "West Bengal is not perceived as a strong area where the manufacturing world would want to come."

However, in the knowledge segment, the State was well positioned with its pool of pure engineering knowledge base. "The opportunities have been there for 10 years now. With our delivery model in place now, we hope to be able to fully exploit this," Mr Chatterjee said.