Kolkata: The West Bengal Chief Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, on Monday, said that the US had agreed to partner her Government to bring in new investments in the State.
The US was willing to invest in health, education, engineering and technical education, manufacturing and IT sectors of the region, she said.
Ms Banerjee, following a meeting with the US Secretary of State, Ms Hillary Clinton, at Writers' Building today, said that West Bengal has been selected as “partner State”.
“As partner State, they will invest in West Bengal. There have been very little US investments in the region in the past due to the political situation here,” she told reporters at Writers' Buildings.
Joint Committee
A joint committee consisting of the West Bengal Chief Secretary, Mr Samar Ghosh, and the US Ambassador to India, Ms Nancy Powell, has been formed. The committee will co-ordinate matters and look into issues of investments in the region.
Meeting
Earlier around 11 a.m., Ms Clinton arrived with a large US delegation for the meeting. The meeting took place at the conference room of the State Secretariat (Writers') from 11:05 a.m. to 11:57 a.m. – nearly 12 minutes longer than the scheduled time. A one-on-one meeting between the two also took place.
Other dignitaries present with Ms Clinton were the US Ambassador, Ms Nancy Powell, the US Assistant Secretary, Mr Robert Blake, and the US Consul General, Mr Dean Thompson.
The Bengal Finance Minister, Mr Amit Mitra, the Chief Secretary, Mr Samar Ghosh, the Home Secretary, Mr Basudev Banerjee, and Secretary to the Chief Minister, Mr Gautam Sanyal, were present during the meeting.
According to the Chief Minister, cooperation has been sought to hold a world youth festival to commemorate Swami Vivekananda's Chicago address.
“She told me that she will speak to the Mayor of Chicago and let me know,” Ms Banerjee said.
An invitation, Ms Banerjee said, has been extended to the US President, Mr Barack Obama, to visit Kolkata.
The Chief Minister presented Ms Clinton a scarf from Santiniketan, an English translation of Tagore's Gitanjali, a copy of Gitabitan, the collected work of Swami Vivekananda and a book on Sri Ramakrishna brought from the Belur Math.
She was gifted a memento with Tagore's picture embossed on it.
Film ties
Ms Banerjee, sought a joint endeavour from the US to work together for the development of Bengal's entertainment industry.
She emphasised on developing the entertainment industry in the region to create synergies between Tollywood, Bollywood and Hollywood.
Following her meeting with Ms Clinton, Ms Banerjee said: “I told her that if we create a synergy between Bollywood, Tollywood and Hollywood then our people (artistes) can go there and their people can come here. She liked my suggestion.”
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