Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Montek Singh Ahluwalia at the seminar. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Calcutta, Dec. 11: The best advertisement for a resurgent Bengal should be a happy investor.

US consul-general George Sibley came up with the suggestion for a brand Bengal campaign on a platform where chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was trying to woo the city?s diplomatic and business communities today.

At a seminar organised by the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation and the Consular Corps, Sibley praised the government for effecting a change, but with a word of caution.

?The party (CPM) must also support the various reform initiatives at the Centre. Investors notice discrepancies in policies,? he warned, even as Bhattacharjee raised the state?s sales pitch.

?The world is changing, the country is changing and so are we,? announced the chief minister, underlining that his government was aware of the role ?private sector? could play towards the ?growth? of the economy.

After Bhattacharjee, industries and commerce minister Nirupam Sen and a team of secretaries padded up for the post-lunch sessions, focusing on opportunities in Bengal.

Union minister for external affairs K. Natwar Singh, Polish deputy foreign minister Boguslaw Zalesky, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and industrialist R. P. Goenka were present at the meeting aimed at welcoming the world to Calcutta.

Singh stressed the importance of economic diplomacy. ?We are planning to set up regional offices in some state capitals for more interaction with the industry and the state governments,? he said.

When it came to foreign direct investment (FDI), there was a twist in the tale. Ahluwalia ? known for his fancy for free markets and reforms ? emphasised the need to scale up domestic investments to fuel growth and Bhattacharjee was far from shy about his fancy for foreign funds. Allaying apprehensions on policies in a Left-run state, the chief minister said: ?I can assure you that in West Bengal we are trying to attract FDI.?

There was more in store for the diplomats and businessmen as Bhattacharjee iterated his industry-friendly pronouncements, from invitation to the private sector to develop infrastructure to reducing the impact of trade unionism on industry.

?West Bengal has an attractive economic record and it is among the faster growing states,? observed Ahluwalia, who outlined the Centre?s initiatives to remove bottlenecks in infrastructure, and in the social and agricultural sectors.

He also announced that a new civil aviation policy, which would pave way for private participation in modernisation of airports, would be placed before the Union cabinet for approval in mid-January. ?We, at the Planning Commission and the civil aviation ministry, have agreed to announce some concessions for private sector participation. We also have plans to take state governments on board in airport modernisation projects,? added Ahluwalia.

In his inaugural address, Goenka, also a Rajya Sabha member, mentioned that civil aviation minister Praful Patel had told him by March 2005, Air-India would start two weekly flights to London from Calcutta.

?The issue of ore linkages to facilitate Jindal Iron & Steel Company?s proposed steel plant in Bengal has already been taken up with the central government and we are expecting results,? said the veteran businessman, throwing his weight behind the state for the Rs 12,000-crore steel project. He also revealed that discussions for Australian investment in the mining industry, worth Rs 1,500 crore, are in the last leg.