Monday, April 11, 2005
Bengal open to FDI in all sectors: CM
Aarthi Ramachandran / New Delhi April 11, 2005
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today said his government was open to foreign direct investment (FDI) in all sectors, including infrastructure.
Talking to Business Standard, he admitted that the CPI(M) had a separate set of rules governing the flow of FDI to the Centre and to states.
Bhattacharjee is here to attend the 18th party congress of the CPI(M), which is debating what guidelines should regulate FDI to states and how they should be different from those governing the FDI flow to the Centre.
“You have to understand the difference between the Centre and the states. In state, we are trying to attract FDI, there is no dichotomy in that. We want FDI in sectors, but we are against FDI in public sector undertakings, which are in the core sectors and are the backbone of our economy, and are also profit-making. If they (Centre) sell hotels, we do not oppose. I am also selling our Great Eastern Hotel,” he said outlining his plans for restructuring 56 public sector units in West Bengal.
“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told me a few days back that he was reading Nehru’s writings on mixed economy. We should not go ruthlessly into disinvestment like Arun Shourie did. Every morning, he used to get up and close one unit,” Bhattacharjee said, indicating that he was comfortable with the Prime Minister's and New Delhi’s efforts at promoting West Bengal.
He outlined steps taken by the state government to attract investment. After the end of the licenceraj in the mid-1990s, opportunities for growth of West Bengal as an investment destination improved dramatically, he said.
“With the end of the licenceraj, we thought it was the time to take the bull by the horns. In our industrial policy resolution adopted in 1994, we said we need private investments, including foreign one,” he said.
He said because of his efforts, West Bengal had been attracting FDI from Japan, China, France, Indonesia and Germany, which would be investing in the retail sector.
In the information technology sector, Bhattacharjee hopes his state can make up for the lost time by offering the best of human resources the country has to offer.
“Ajim Premji once told me, in all his centres over 50 per cent of IT professionals were from West Bengal,” Bhattacharjee said, talking of the IT park coming up at Rajarhat near Kolkata.
Bhattacharjee said there could be a “difference of shade” between the line adopted by him and that of the central party leadership. But he maintained that there was consensus on whether states could invite FDI or not. "Still the struggle is on within the party,” he said talking about the current debate at the party congress.