West Bengal chief minister seeks Indonesian investment<\/p>\n
The chief minister of West Bengal in India, Buddhadeb
\nBhattacharjee, visited Jakarta from Aug. 24 to Aug. 26 to promote
\nhis province in Indonesia and to seek Indonesian investments.
\nBhattacharjee spoke to The Jakarta Post's Veeramalla Anjaiah on
\nmany issues relating to West Bengal, which has 80 million people
\nand is ruled by a communist government. The following are
\nexcerpts from the interview.<\/p>\n
Question: What is the main purpose of your visit to Southeast
\nAsia and Indonesia in particular?
\nAnswer: Our policy at this moment is to interact with all
\nSoutheast Asian countries and also East Asia, like Japan and
\nChina. Among the Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia is
\nimportant for us.<\/p>\n
Before I came here, we already had contacts in some big
\nIndonesian companies like Salim Group, Bakrie Group and Ciputra
\nGroup. They (companies' executives) had visited Kolkata several
\ntimes. Benny S. Santoso (Salim Group's executive director) came
\nto Kolkata almost three times. All these people decided to start
\nsome projects also in West Bengal. There are two important
\nprojects: One is Ciputra Group's township project near Kolkata.
\nThe other one is Salim group's automotive, chiefly motorcycle,
\nmanufacturing plant.<\/p>\n
Aside from Indonesian companies, we also have contacts in
\nSingapore. At least three Singaporean companies came to West
\nBengal. I came here from Singapore. We also have some contacts in
\nThailand and Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Since Indonesian companies are taking interest in West Bengal
\nand they have already started some projects, therefore I should
\nrespond. I decided to come here to mobilize and contact some
\nother Indonesian companies. We welcome Indonesian investments in
\nWest Bengal.<\/p>\n
How would you rate the investment climate in West Bengal?<\/p>\n
In the past, there were some apprehensions about West Bengal.
\nNow, those apprehensions no longer exist.<\/p>\n
For example, Japan's foreign direct investment (FDI) in West
\nBengal is the highest in India. Four years back I visited Japan.
\nMitsubishi Chemicals came to West Bengal and established a big
\nplant.<\/p>\n
Why is West Bengal a favorite destination for foreigners? It's
\nbecause of our locational advantage, because of our natural
\nresources, human resources and finally, political stability.<\/p>\n
I try my best with other colleagues to prove that we are an
\ninvestor-friendly government, not only in our talk but in our
\nactions.<\/p>\n
Foreigners are coming, even Americans are coming to West
\nBengal. American companies like IBM, Pepsicola have already
\nestablished plants in Bengal.<\/p>\n
It's an indication that foreigners also feel now the West
\nBengal is their favorite place.<\/p>\n
What about the red-tapism in your state?<\/p>\n
After 1992, the Indian government started this liberalization
\nprocess and things got moving. The situation is not like it was
\npreviously. As far as our state is concerned, I personally
\nbelieve that foreign companies in West Bengal are protected. We
\nhave to take their needs into consideration.<\/p>\n
Once again, Mitsubishi's case is a good example. They made a
\nprofit in just three years. Now they are planning to establish
\nanother plant.<\/p>\n
Yours is a leftist government, which is mainly supported by
\nworkers, farmers, students and intellectuals. If any labor
\ndispute arises in a foreign company, how will your government
\ndeal with the issue?<\/p>\n
Our involvement in trade unions is an advantage. The majority
\nof workers are in support of this government. And we are trying
\nto change their mind-set. I tell them, look this is a new
\nsituation. We need FDI; we need infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Issues like production, productivity and the quality of
\nproduction are not the headaches of the management alone. You
\nhave to share them. Otherwise, industries will collapse and jobs
\nwill be lost. Now things have changed.<\/p>\n
For example, there are so many Information Technology (IT)
\ncompanies in West Bengal. Not a single working day has been lost
\ndue to strikes or unrest since their establishment.<\/p>\n
It's a strange situation. You represent a communist party but
\nwork with the Indian Congress Party as well as foreign
\nbusinesses, including the American capitalists. Could you please
\nthrow some light on this?<\/p>\n
You see, communists. We can't speak anymore about old dogmas.
\nThe world is changing . We are also changing.<\/p>\n
Look at China. The situation is completely different if you
\ncompare it to before 1978. The Chinese realize that their
\nposition in the world has changed. So, they changed their
\npolicies accordingly. Deng Xiaoping used to say \"We learn truth
\nfrom the facts, not from books.<\/p>\n
We learned from our experiences in India and abroad.<\/p>\n
We are functioning in a small area. India is a big country and
\nWest Bengal is part of India. We have to formulate new policies.
\nWe have to reform our old policies. Otherwise, we will not be
\nable to survive.<\/p>\n
And our success story is our land reforms. The majority of the
\nland belongs to poor farmers. Thanks to this, our production of
\nrice, fish, vegetables, potatoes and fruits is the highest in
\nIndia.<\/p>\n
Based on this success in the agriculture sector, now we want
\nto focus on industrial sector.<\/p>\n
How do you see globalization?<\/p>\n
Globalization is a must. Nobody can stop it. And we have to
\nadmit it. We want globalization but not at the cost of our
\ninterest, developing countries' interest. We want a level playing
\nfield, otherwise it will be one-sided. Only developed countries
\nwill benefit from it at the cost of Third World countries. That
\nis not good. We cannot avoid this globalization process. We must
\nparticipate in it.<\/p>\n
Next year, your government will face assembly elections. How
\ndo you see the future of West Bengal?<\/p>\n
With the strong support of farmers, workers, students and
\nintellectuals, I am hopeful that we will win the elections next
\nyear. Because political stability is a must. So there should be
\ncontinuity in government policies.<\/p>",
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