Date:27/08/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/08/27/stories/2005082701210300.htm

Back Industrial park: Bengal CM signs MoU with Indonesia

P.S. Suryanarayana

Singapore , Aug. 26

WITH the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, conveying a political message to the international business community that his Government is determined to stay on its "reform" course, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed in Jakarta for an "industrial-park" project, with foreign collaboration, in the State.

Mr Bhattacharjee, who on Friday concluded a five-day visit to Singapore and Indonesia, briefed top political leaders in these two countries about the State Government's "economic programme" and his "political thinking" in the present milieu of globalisation. He said that his government wanted foreign direct investments (FDI) and private capital for industrial and infrastructure projects in the State.

The MoU for an industrial-park project was signed on Thursday night between the Salim Group, an Indonesian business house, and the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation.

Under the MoU, essentially a "statement of intent" on both sides, the Indonesian group will play the developer's role for promoting an industrial park, in the nature of a special economic zone, in West Bengal. A formal and final agreement, including a detailed project report, will be negotiated on the basis of the present MoU, according to officials.

The new MoU acquires importance on two counts: first, West Bengal 's earlier decision to allow FDI (also, from Indonesia) in a township-development project in the State and, secondly, the latest initiative by the governments of India and Indonesia to undertake a joint study of the feasibility of negotiating a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement.

The Singapore Business Federation and the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the West Bengal Government as also the Confederation of Indian Industry, , signed an MoU for enhancing interactions between the business entities in the two countries.