Good policy environment in Bengal needed for investment

Kolkata, April 20 (IANS) Chinese ambassador Zhang Yan Friday said a good policy environment is needed in West Bengal to attract foreign funds and identified agriculture, tourism and power sectors as potential areas for investment from his country.

"I think agriculture, tourism, infrastructure, education and power sectors are the areas and opportunity for cooperation. Because the state has potential in those areas," Zhang said, emphasising that good policy and infrastructure were needed to attract investment.

"And I hope more Chinese tourists would come to West Bengal and Chinese investment would come to the state," he told mediapersons on the sidelines of a special session on China-India Business Opportunity and Challenges, organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce (BCC) here.

Zhang said West Bengal was geographically located at a very strategic position and investors needed good environment in terms of policy and infrastructure to invest in the state.

"These are the main expectations from the investors. If the environment is better, then more investment will come."

Economists say the government should reinforce the competitive drivers of the state through policy actions.

There has been a rise in the share of private investments in West Bengal. "Close to 65 per cent of the total investment in West Bengal comes from the private sector and this is a clear indication that industrialists and investors are looking at the state with hope and expectations," Mukherjee said at a conference organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India here Sunday.

The Mamata Banerjee-led government has rolled out the red carpet for industrialists, exhorting them to consider West Bengal as their "dreamland" for investment.

However, its decision of direct buying of land for industry has raised many eyebrows, including that of Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz.