The US Minister Counsellor for Commercial Affairs, Ms Judy R. Reinke, on Monday said that the US interest in India in general and Eastern India in particular will be “made more visible” in the days to come.
The “renewed” interest of the US trade community in doing business in West Bengal is reflected in the fact that a delegation of maritime technology companies will be visiting the State this month, after a span of nearly three years.
“The delegation will have dredging companies such as DSC, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, apart from having representation from cargo services companies and security companies,” Ms Reinke said.
The last business delegation (delegation of clean energy development) came to West Bengal in 2008. The series of developments post the Singur crisis led to the cancellation of the US India Business Council (USIBC) trip to West Bengal in 2008.
Talking about the investment climate in West Bengal after the Singur crisis, the former Counsel General, Ms Beth Payne, had said, “USIBC was very excited about coming to Kolkata, but they changed their mind after the Singur problem became evident. Led by companies like Cargill and Boeing, this council could have brought in many US investors to the state, but they decided to skip the state at least for the time being.”
Ms Reinke said that even while there was not much of business-to-business meetings during these three years, there was, however, a lot of company-to-company interaction between firms in the US and West Bengal.
Responding to a query regarding a change in business climate in the State under the new government, Ms Reinke said, “There is no strict change in the business climate. Our approach is going to show we are committed in Eastern India. We want to make the US interest in India and Eastern India visible.”
There will also be another delegation of water technology firms visiting West Bengal in April this year. This apart, US would also be inviting Indian mining companies to visit the Mine Expo in the US in September.
Agricultural equipment, renewable energy, healthcare and supply chain logistics could be some of the key areas of co-operation between the US and West Bengal, she pointed out.