Singapore and West Bengal will jointly set up a business centre in Kolkata, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said after meeting Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong here Tuesday.The business centre is slated to come up in 18 months.A Mamata Banerjee-led delegation comprising state ministers, bureaucrats and industrialists are camping in the island nation hunting for investments.Describing the 40-minute talks with Loong as "positive and fruitful", Mamata Banerjee said she invited the prime minister to her state. "The meeting was positive and fruitful. We have invited him to visit our state. Bengal and Singapore will jointly set up a business centre in Kolkata. It will come up in 18 months. We invited the prime minister to inaugurate the centre," she told reporters after the meet.
Mamata Banerjee said she has also conveyed to Loong about her desire to create a chair at Calcutta University in the name of his father and the first prime minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew."We want to develop the relation between Bengal and Singapore in a more cordial manner," said Mamata Banerjee, who apprised Loong about her government's initiatives to spur the industrial growth in the state."I told the prime minister that since the time difference between Kolkata and Singapore is just two and a half hours, it will be an important advantage in business."West Bengal is endowed with hills, forests, rivers and sea coast. We have a lot of scope for tourism. We told him about the scope of investment in our financial hub and informed him about the cities that are being developed," she said.
"We chose Singapore for investment destination because of geographical, historical, political and cultural reasons. We have requested the Singapore prime minister to make Kolkata a part of the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Indo-Singapore ties," she said.State Finance and Industries Minister Amit Mitra, who is accompanying Mamata Banerjee, said the business centre will act as one window centre facilitating trade, business, investment and technology of transfer between Singapore and West Bengal."Several world famous manufacturing companies are headquartered in Singapore and we are confident that the centre will play a significant role in developing mutual financial and business ties," said Mitra.