West Bengal: An Overview

Changing Trends

Key Emerging Sectors

Infrastructure: Social & Industrial

Minerals & Iron & Steel

Agribusiness Knowledge Economy

The Way Forward: Public Private Partnerships for Project Development

 Key advantages offered by the state A port city with one of the best road & railways infrastructure in place Strategic geographical location in the East and access to markets Stable local government & Changing views on the economic growth Knowledgeable and dedicated workforce Key Requirements of the state A shared vision of development between administration, government, opposition, industry and people Attracting private investment should be a policy and not done on project basis. Government can be the facilitator, but people and investors both need to be the stakeholders. The state must adopt an integrated focused strategy to fully harne

Key sectors
Key Sectors
Agriculture

New opportunities
New Opportunities
Hub for food processing Floriculture Dairy Industry

Infrastructure

Revamp Education, one of the main strength Water Management Technique Encourage Medical Tourism Revamp the ports

Minerals

New technologies, equipments and machineries Environment friendly policies & Export oriented processing units

Knowledge Economy

Focus bio-technology Finance IT & ITeS E-Governance

West Bengal has nearly 3% of the nations cultivable land Small and marginal farmers tills 68% of the total cultivated are of the State Agriculture contributes 24% of SGDP. Irrigation covers 45% of net cropped area, however it has high dependence on monsoons Floriculture, Horticulture, herbal plants, temperate vegetables, fish and fishery are a few of the allied sectors to agriculture that needs proper investment policy and export orientation. Integrated agribusiness can only thrive with world class agriinfrastructure seed bank, cold storages, modern terminal markets, roadways and connectivity. Investment related to agriculture also need to involve the local people.

West Bengal is one of the richest state in agriculture historically and remains their core strength.

Theme 1: Development of the Food Processing Industry

Opportunities for Food Processing in West Bengal Agro Food Parks have the ability to integrate the Food Value Chain, which is the fundamental step to take Agriculture to Agribusiness. Offers vast prospects for enhancing value & export potential of agri produce Offers integrated facilities for the smooth operation of ventures Specially designed to target the needs of the agro & food processing industry

Substantial gap still exists between the potential demand for infrastructure for high growth and the available supply. Education is strong in West Bengal, but it requires orientation. Health network in the State is quiet good, but it requires updated policy and governance to attract Medical Tourism in the state. Appropriate policy and fiscal interventions to regulate these sun-shine sectors. The strategic position of the state makes it a natural gateway to the North Eastern States. Also well connected by land, air and sea routes Efforts should be directed towards the prompt upgradation, modernization and expansion of these facilities to fully utilize this strategic advantage the state offers.

Theme I: Global Competitiveness Friendly Policy Encourage more Private Investment Implement roadmaps for technological imports Benchmarking global competitiveness level for indigenous industries to work within an export oriented framework Theme II: Labour & Land Policies Environment friendly policies Rationalize safety norms to provide better atmosphere to workers De-reservation of mining areas Clear entry laws for investors