Bengal Global Business Summit 2023 : A whopping 3.76 lakh crore investment promised to state

KOLKATA : Bengal Global Business Summit, in its 7th edition — 2023, came to an end on Wednesday with pledges for investments in the state from the captains of the industry.

The grandiosity of the event can be gauged by the total sum of Rs. 3,76,288 crore that has been promised as investment by international and national business giants at the Summit.

Attended by 400 international delegates, representatives from 17 partner countries, business and official delegations from nearly 40 countries, and 15 Ambassadors and High Commissioners from different countries, this was a truly global business investment event.

In all, 188 MoUs were signed and a large number of new industrial policies for ensuring enabling environment in the state were announced.

During the two-day Bengal Global Business Summit in Kolkata, several notable businessmen made announcements about their projects involving investments in the state.

In the next two years, Narayana Health plans to open a 1,000-bed super specialty hospital in Kolkata. Renowned cardiac surgeon Mr. Devi Prasad Shetty, the Project’s Chairman, stated that Narayana Health has allocated Rs 1,000 crore for it.

“We are totally committed to investing in West Bengal. Within two years, I am optimistic we will have a 1000-bed super specialty hospital in Kolkata with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore… Over 10,000 people will be employed,” said Dr Shetty, while addressing the seventh edition of this Global Business Summit.

Addressing the gathering, Mr. Sanjiv Goenka, Chairman of RPSG Group, announced that the conglomerate would also set up a top-notch medical facility in Kolkata. Though, he did not specify any details.

Leading conglomerate ITC Ltd. announced on Tuesday that it would increase the number of hotels it owns in West Bengal from five to nine, the MD and the Chairman of the company Mr. Sanjiv Puri said. He also added that the company will soon open its eighteenth manufacturing facility in the state, during the seventh Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) held here. He, however, did not elaborate on ITC’s plans announced on Tuesday. “We have 17 manufacturing units (in Bengal)… one more will be commissioned in the near future. We have five hospitality assets in the state, and over time, ITC is going to take this to nine,” Puri said.

According to Puri, in the past few years, the major tobacco company has made investments in West Bengal totaling nearly Rs 7,000 crore. Additionally, he said that the state had undergone a remarkable, multifaceted transformation thanks to Chief Minister Smt Mamata Banerjee’s leadership.

Mr. Harsh Pati Singhania, MD of JK Paper, announced that the JK Group would establish a dairy project in Kharagpur’s Vidyasagar Industrial Park. “The JK group is returning to West Bengal which is its janmabhoomi. With a dairy project set to come up in the Vidyasagar Industrial Park, Kharagpur, the company will source milk from 95,000 farmers and cover 2,000 villages. This will generate an approximate income of Rs 1,000 crore for the farmers of the state.”