Addressing a delegation of German businessmen at a city hotel here on Monday, the chief minister assured that the state government would continue with its industrialisation policy by “following a balanced policy on how to improve our agriculture, industry and service sector with the objective of raising the living condition of the poorest of the poor.”
“We are trying to consolidate our success in agriculture and trying to industrialise our state as quickly as possible,” he said, adding that the state government sincerely seeks investment in its industrial sector. State industry minister Nirupam Sen further bolstered Bhattacharjee’s view saying, “It (the industrialisation) is an opportunity for the state government and if we cannot avail this, the development of the state will be in jeopardy.” This, after the CPM lost in Singur and Nandigram, following the state government’s controversial land acquisition policy.
The state government sought German cooperation in three sectors mainly — communication, automation and Information Technology.
The chief minister also urged the German delegation to help the state in the food-processing sector, as the government does not have proper mechanism to market fruits and vegetables produced in the state.
Consul General of Federal Republic of Germany Guenter Wehrmann said that the German state of Bavaria was also an agrarian state earlier and it had to give up the agricultural land to make way for setting up industries.