PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, Sept 30: The Confederation of Indian Industry’s ( CII) maiden East India Summit organised on a virtual platform focussed on a country session with UK and Bangladesh on the second day on Wednesday.
The country sessions with UK and Bangladesh were aimed at bringing together a wide audience and participants from across the world.
The sessions were dedicated to synergizing cross border trade and strong bilateral relationships resting on a foundation of mutual knowledge, understanding, and trust, thus leveraging an opportune business ecosystem towards “Building Eastern India” through integrating the 5 “I”s – Image, Innovation, Infrastructure, Investment and Inclusiveness.
Allan Walker, Green Finance Specialist, UK Department for International Trade (DIT), spelt out several attributes of Indo-UK Clean Growth Agenda, primarily focusing on Bank Lending, Capital Markets, Asset Management, Specialised Green Asset Managers, Venture Capital and Insurance, while addressing CII East India Summit session on UK.
On referring to the contribution of the UK towards logistics infrastructure, Walker mentioned milestones achieved by joint ventures of Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC, towards financing Sukuk Islamic green bond – the first-ever sustainability-linked financing in the aviation sector.
The country session with Bangladesh provided an introspection on the concept of Indo-Bangladesh Transport Synergies for Generation of Seamless Business Environment. Setting the context of discussion, Toufique Hasan, Deputy High Commission of Bangladesh in Kolkata, mentioned that his country is one of the fastest growing economies, ranking 43rd in terms of GDP in 2020, predicting an upscale to 23rd in 2050. He urged India to step up investments in the three Special Economic Zones of Bangladesh, namely Mongla, Bheramara and Mirsarai, rendering them as absolutely commercially viable areas of investment.
CII is organizing the first-ever East India Summit 2021 which kicked off on September 28. The summit will continue till October 7.
CII would be targeting the integration of the growth potential of the five states comprising Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal and the seven North-East states.
