A delegation from Bihar, consisting of government officials and representatives of industry bodies, will visit Shanghai in December to lure Chinese investors to set up their industries in the state.
The plan comes just a few days after Bihar participated in the four-day 18th China International Fair for Investment and Trade, which took place from September 8 at Xiamen, a city in southeast China. Gujarat and Maharashtra too had participated in the fair with an aim to woo the Chinese investors to invest in the Indian states.
“We had participated in the fair to promote Bihar among the investors there. The fair witnessed a lot of investors and we put forward the state’s industrial sector to the forefront and told them about the opportunities and the many aspect of our industrial incentive policy. There were several discussions and their approach has been positive towards Bihar. However, they want to know more about the state and hence have requested that a delegation from Bihar, consisting mainly of representatives of industry bodies, should be sent to China. They want to meet Bihar’s industrialists as they feel that discussing aspects of business and investments with experts is a better idea. The state government will send a delegation, which will have people from Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Bihar Industries Association, Confederation of Indian Industry, in December,” Arun Kumar Singh, director, food processing directorate, said.
The official, who was a part of the team, added that the visit was important in many ways. “We talked about our strength. The food processing sector here is flourishing and we told the Chinese investors about its several aspects. They were also briefed about the other forms of industries, including sugar, of the state. The state has introduced several schemes related to land availability and the same was told them too. They will invest in a sector, which will get them profit, and hence they had requested and invited a delegation from the state. The fact that a delegation from Bihar has been invited shows that they are interested,” Singh added.
The state government had recently participated in an investors’ meet in Calcutta in which senior department officials had explained about the different steps the state was taking to tackle the land scarcity issue. Naveen Verma, principal secretary, industry department, had talked about the “Aao Bihar” scheme, adding that the website of Biada (Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority) had been reconstructed and had all information about the plots available and prices. Apart from this, the officials had talked about the private industrial area policy, an intra-departmental land transfer plan.
“We had talked with the Indian consulate officials and they suggested us that the delegation comes to Shanghai first as it is one among the biggest cities of China and a very important centre for trade. The state government has sought help from the consulate and they have agreed upon helping us when it comes to arranging meetings with the trade bodies and investors of China and also suggesting us the other important cities the delegation will be visiting,” another department official said.
