West Bengal chief minister seeks Indonesian investment

West Bengal chief minister seeks Indonesian investment

The chief minister of West Bengal in India, Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee, visited Jakarta from Aug. 24 to Aug. 26 to promote
his province in Indonesia and to seek Indonesian investments.
Bhattacharjee spoke to The Jakarta Post's Veeramalla Anjaiah on
many issues relating to West Bengal, which has 80 million people
and is ruled by a communist government. The following are
excerpts from the interview.

Question: What is the main purpose of your visit to Southeast
Asia and Indonesia in particular?
Answer: Our policy at this moment is to interact with all
Southeast Asian countries and also East Asia, like Japan and
China. Among the Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia is
important for us.

Before I came here, we already had contacts in some big
Indonesian companies like Salim Group, Bakrie Group and Ciputra
Group. They (companies' executives) had visited Kolkata several
times. Benny S. Santoso (Salim Group's executive director) came
to Kolkata almost three times. All these people decided to start
some projects also in West Bengal. There are two important
projects: One is Ciputra Group's township project near Kolkata.
The other one is Salim group's automotive, chiefly motorcycle,
manufacturing plant.

Aside from Indonesian companies, we also have contacts in
Singapore. At least three Singaporean companies came to West
Bengal. I came here from Singapore. We also have some contacts in
Thailand and Malaysia.

Since Indonesian companies are taking interest in West Bengal
and they have already started some projects, therefore I should
respond. I decided to come here to mobilize and contact some
other Indonesian companies. We welcome Indonesian investments in
West Bengal.

How would you rate the investment climate in West Bengal?

In the past, there were some apprehensions about West Bengal.
Now, those apprehensions no longer exist.

For example, Japan's foreign direct investment (FDI) in West
Bengal is the highest in India. Four years back I visited Japan.
Mitsubishi Chemicals came to West Bengal and established a big
plant.

Why is West Bengal a favorite destination for foreigners? It's
because of our locational advantage, because of our natural
resources, human resources and finally, political stability.

I try my best with other colleagues to prove that we are an
investor-friendly government, not only in our talk but in our
actions.

Foreigners are coming, even Americans are coming to West
Bengal. American companies like IBM, Pepsicola have already
established plants in Bengal.

It's an indication that foreigners also feel now the West
Bengal is their favorite place.

What about the red-tapism in your state?

After 1992, the Indian government started this liberalization
process and things got moving. The situation is not like it was
previously. As far as our state is concerned, I personally
believe that foreign companies in West Bengal are protected. We
have to take their needs into consideration.

Once again, Mitsubishi's case is a good example. They made a
profit in just three years. Now they are planning to establish
another plant.

Yours is a leftist government, which is mainly supported by
workers, farmers, students and intellectuals. If any labor
dispute arises in a foreign company, how will your government
deal with the issue?

Our involvement in trade unions is an advantage. The majority
of workers are in support of this government. And we are trying
to change their mind-set. I tell them, look this is a new
situation. We need FDI; we need infrastructure.

Issues like production, productivity and the quality of
production are not the headaches of the management alone. You
have to share them. Otherwise, industries will collapse and jobs
will be lost. Now things have changed.

For example, there are so many Information Technology (IT)
companies in West Bengal. Not a single working day has been lost
due to strikes or unrest since their establishment.

It's a strange situation. You represent a communist party but
work with the Indian Congress Party as well as foreign
businesses, including the American capitalists. Could you please
throw some light on this?

You see, communists. We can't speak anymore about old dogmas.
The world is changing . We are also changing.

Look at China. The situation is completely different if you
compare it to before 1978. The Chinese realize that their
position in the world has changed. So, they changed their
policies accordingly. Deng Xiaoping used to say "We learn truth
from the facts, not from books.

We learned from our experiences in India and abroad.

We are functioning in a small area. India is a big country and
West Bengal is part of India. We have to formulate new policies.
We have to reform our old policies. Otherwise, we will not be
able to survive.

And our success story is our land reforms. The majority of the
land belongs to poor farmers. Thanks to this, our production of
rice, fish, vegetables, potatoes and fruits is the highest in
India.

Based on this success in the agriculture sector, now we want
to focus on industrial sector.

How do you see globalization?

Globalization is a must. Nobody can stop it. And we have to
admit it. We want globalization but not at the cost of our
interest, developing countries' interest. We want a level playing
field, otherwise it will be one-sided. Only developed countries
will benefit from it at the cost of Third World countries. That
is not good. We cannot avoid this globalization process. We must
participate in it.

Next year, your government will face assembly elections. How
do you see the future of West Bengal?

With the strong support of farmers, workers, students and
intellectuals, I am hopeful that we will win the elections next
year. Because political stability is a must. So there should be
continuity in government policies.