Thank you to our Finance MInister Amit Mitra Ji and all of my colleagues. Our Hon’ble President, we lovingly called him Pranab da, we are really delighted for his kind presence. Our Hon’ble Governor, Amu Saheb the Industry minister of Bangladesh, My Deputy Chief Minister of Poland Mr. Kazimierz Karolczak, Mayor of Young Inchien, from China, Vice Chairman of CPPCC China, Yang Su provincial Committee, Dr. Horzetky, Vice Minister, Economic Affairs North Rhine, Germany, Barnace Valoreamos and so many countries who are representing here. My partner countries, especially Germany, Japan, Poland, Italy. Dear Sourav, Jishu, His Excellencies from Japan, Poland, Italy, Norway, The Netherlands, Romania, Venezuela. Captain of the industries, Head of the Chamber. My all respected Delegates and the industry friends, a very very hearty welcome to all of you to Bengal Global Business Summit 2017. My heartiest greetings and best wishes to all of you, and your family members, for the New Year. Thank you so much for coming over here.
We are extremely honoured and grateful that our Respected President is here with us today. His kind presence gives us new inspiration and also guidance for the future. His blessings and inspiration have always been our guiding force.
We are really grateful for the august presence of Honourable Governor Mr. Keshari Nath Tripathi Ji and all of my friends. It looks like a galaxy of stars. We would like to thank you so much for being present here. I think this Bengal Global Business Summit has proved to be a milestone in West Bengal’s history. This year’s Summit has an overwhelming presence of international guests. Our partner countries, Germany, Japan, Italy, Poland. My friends from 29 countries, China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Korea, Russia, Iran, UAE, UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, France, Norway, Romania, Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Australia, Nigeria, Venezuela, Russia are attending this Summit. So in real sense, it is a galaxy of stars and it is an international convention. Thank you so much for your kind presence.
Over the next two days, we are going to have 4,000 businessmen, business leaders attending the session. We are having a dedicated international session today, tomorrow we will have the national session. Top academics and professors of East Asia, Japan, Thailand and Singapore have joined the Summit to exchange concepts of Bengal Asian synergies in different programs. The economy of Bengal has moved up from 67 billion dollars to 140 billion dollars within these five years, more than double. Our tax revenues have doubled in four years. It is a record in India. Our capital expenditure has grown more than seven folds in the short period. Our growth in the industrial sector has been 10.59% compared to the national average at 7.3% in 2015-16. In service sector also we grew one and a half time faster than the national average and in agricultural sector we have grown five times in the national average.
You will be happy to know in our social sectors we are doing very good work. I will give you just two example, when we came to power we have seen our Infant Mortality Rate was 32% but now within these five years, it has come down to 26%, 6 % less. Even in Gujarat, it is 33%, national average it is 37%. And Bengal from 32% it came down to 26%. Even institutional delivery rate, if you see, earlier when we came to power it was about 65% now because of our hectic work it became 93-94%.
Like these we have so many social sector programs. Like 100 Days’ work, Khadya Sathi we give rice at only Rs 2/kg. Rs 2/kg rice to eight crore people. We have the guaranteed food security program, we give free treatment to all the people. Treatments range from heart operations to kidney dialysis to MRIs, everything is free of cost. We have already started 41 Multi Super New Hospitals, so many SU for the children, the mother and child hub, and also within these four/five years 16 new universities have been established Bengal including St. Xavier’s and Presidency University, both public and private. Our skilled labour is very important. Every year we have to skill about 6 million unemployed youth. We have already set up more than 300 Polytechnic colleges, the ITI colleges and we are giving all the training, we are giving bicycle to our students, all 40 lakh are getting the bicycle for free every year. Girl children are getting free bicycles, scholarships, and healthcare under the Kanyashree Program.
We have already started a new Airport, Andal Green Airport, We have the Dumdum Airport, Bagdogra Airport, Andal Airport also Malda and Coochbehar will be connected. 22 helipad services will also be started. We have also started the Clean City Green City Program. We are working on six theme cities. New Township Programs are available.
The global Bodies like UNICEF, DFID, UNICEF, UNESCO they are helping us for the MSME sector and for the social sector and they are very happy for our work. Now Bengal has emerged as the growth engine of India. It is in a strategic location and that is why South East Asia and Asian countries, the North Eastern countries are working together. We have already announced so many policies, Public Private Partnership policies, education policies, tourism policies, IT policies, textile policy, fashion design policy, start-up policies, so many tourism, culture, renewable energy.
Why I am requesting all of you to come to Bengal and invest in Bengal? Because, now a days, though we are facing some hardship for the demonetisation and the remonetisation. Industries are facing the problem, and it is a fact that the economy has slowed down as some industries are not being able to make their payments. Small scale industry, the unorganized sectors, the traders, the farmers, everyone is facing problems.
I appeal to all of you to come to Bengal because, we have started giving relief to the businessman, agriculture also will build up, and industry as well. We have the land bank, land use policy, land map, skilled labour, extra surplus power capacity, we have the road connectivity, railway connectivity, plane connectivity, we have the e-Governance, and we have got highest award in India for the e-Governance also for the e-Tax collection also. We have the e-Tender system also.
Why I am saying that please come? Yes of course there is a cause, don’t think that Calcutta is Calcutta or Bengal is Bengal, you consider in a broader sense, If you invest in Bengal or Kolkata, you can see the face of my eight North Eastern sister states like Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh. Our advantage is border country like Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Ministers are present here, from Kolkata, from Bengal you can nurture Bangladesh. You can nurture Nepal, they are my friendly bordering countries. Like Bhutan, last time the Prime Minister of Bhutan was also present. Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and also adjacent China are very close. Thailand, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are all about just two and a half hours away. All Asian countries, even Maldives and Myanmar are very close to us. Bengal will be connected with Nepal and Bangladesh by road very soon, rail connectivity has already started. We have air connectivity also.
We can offer land as well, as we have a land bank. 6000 acres of land has already been identified for the Industrial Park. If you want to invest you can come up because everything is ready. We have a surplus of power, so that is not a problem. We have already set up a policy for land mutation and conversion. Within 15 to 60 days, everything will be cleared. Everything is cleared for MSME as well. You will also get very skilled, talented and cheap labour here.
The young generation of Bengal is working hard. They are all over the world, including USA, UK, Japan, Germany, China, Russia, and France. It is solely because they have an educated and talented brain so they can work anywhere and give everything. So you can use these brains, use the land and nurture the business. So many opportunities are here. From manufacturing to industry, engineering to small scale, telecommunication, IT, hardware, textile, everywhere there is a better opportunity.
I would request you to invest in Bengal. You will get friendly environment. One thing you should appreciate, five years ago, the mandays lost due to Leftist agitations were 78 lakhs. And now I am happy to announce the number is zero. No mandays are lost now. We do not allow any strikes or blockades or anything which will become a disaster for the industries. And if there is any problem for any industry we pick up the matter and we sort it out within 24 hours. So that’s why I think we deserve it and Bengal is the destination as there is no shortage of land, no shortage of manpower. Everything is there. If you come to Bengal you will see everything, from Royal Bengal Tigers to Kanchenjunga hills. You have attractive sea beaches like Digha. There are also religious places like Dakshineswar and Belur and Furfura Sharif Ghutiari Sharif, we have the Gurudwara and the Girjah, we have the Mandir and the Masjid. And we all work together because we are united. The young generation, the IT people, they are all very talented and hardworking. So I request you to please come and invest in Bengal. I am eagerly waiting to listen to your discussions on the subject, and we will sum up at the end. I urge all of you, Bengal has changed now. Bengal is the destination now. Bengal is the investment target now.It is the investment gateway. What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow.
I extend my heartiest greetings to all of you and hope you will enjoy your stay here. We are deeply honoured and privileged by the presence of the Honourable President and the Honourable Governor. I will just say that Bengal is Bengal. It started the national movement and it played a major role in giving us freedom. Bengal’s culture and education is unique. Please invest and you will see that Bengal is always your friend, it is always a place you can call your home. It is your own home and I request my foreign delegates, national delegates and my state delegates not to consider us as a government but as your own family members. I am not requesting the industry, but I am requesting my brothers and sisters to please come and invest in our family. Thank you so much. Jai Hind. Vande Mataram. Banglar Joy Hok. Bangla Hok Biswa Shera. Bangla Jindabad.
