German team to visit India in Feb

A German small scale industry delegation is likely to visit India in February 2005 to explore investment opportunity in the country. The team will also come to West Bengal during its visit.

This was disclosed by the the consul general of Germany, Erhard Zander, during the annual general meeting of Indo German Chamber of Commerce on Friday evening.

Earlier, West Bengal finance minister Ashim Dasgupta has urged the German small and medium scale outfits to set up unit in the state during his speech to the members of the chamber.

Besides, he requested the German ambassador, Helmo Richter to start the service of Lufthansa from Kolkata airport. Incidentally, German companies and joint ventures like Siemens, Otto India and Phonex Yule are operating from Kolkata. The German consul said that the German SMEs are now keen to come to India following the reasonable growth of Indian economy in recent years.

The state finance minister pointed out during the speech that West Bengal with 27 lakh registered SSI units offers excellent opportunities for the development of this sector here.

Dasgupta portrayed the state as the hub of economic quadrangle that includes the entire eastern India, North East, Bangladesh and Myanmar. "This quadrangle has a population of more than 400 million that is more than the population of more than one third of Europe," he said.

He argued that the per capita income of this region might be quite low but considering the population the combined effect is huge. According to the state finance minister, the German SMEs could look for units in newly developed Dankuni Pandua road and Kalyani Expressway.

"We shall develop small and medium scale industries in both sides of these two roads. Both the areas are strategically located and close to Kolkata port," he added.

Pointing to the investment pattern of West Bengal, FM said that 75 per cent of investment made in the state is in SMEs.