Haldia to be focus of Indian mission to USA

29-May-06

Chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb and commerce and industries secretary Sabyasachi Sen preceding Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to USA will showcase Bengal’s business potential, especially in petrochemicals. The two bureaucrats will interact with 28 top chemical and petrochemical companies in West Virginia, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat along with Bengal are the other states invited to another meeting in Washington with members of the National Association of Manufacturing. The conference is being organised by The NRI Group, which includes Purnendu Chatterjee and Rajat Gupta and is part of the Prime Minister’s task force hunting for foreign investments. Each state will be given around 15 minutes to showcase its investment opportunities, where Bengal will make a presentation on the proposed chemical hub at Haldia. Haldia, close to a port and a gateway to east and southeast Asia, is likely to be declared a special investment region for petrochemicals and polymers. IL&FS, which prepared the presentations, has also promised to provide funds to the Bengal government at a competitive rate for setting up the chemical hub.