EASTERN REGION

Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Eastern Region
3 Raja Santosh Road
Alipore
Kolkata -700027
Tel: +91 (33) 32944677
Fax: +91 (33) 24490070
E-mail: iicci.cal@indiaitaly.com

Regional Committee

The Eastern Regional Office was first established in 1966 and relaunched in 2004 with a full-fledged office in Kolkata and the creation of the Single Window (Sportello Unico), in the premises of the Consulate General in February 2005. 

The awareness by Italian businessmen of the commercial potential of Eastern India, brought about by the visit of the Chief Minister of West Bengal to Italy in 2003, has, over the last few years, developed into a steadily growing trade collaboration between Italy and West Bengal. The Eastern Region Office of the Chamber has been playing a significant role in strengthening these relations, taking two important government delegations to Itay. In 2004, when West Bengal was the Partner State for Asia Week, the West Bengal Minister-in-Charge for Commerce & Industries, Sri Nirupam Sen, accompanied a business delegation to Milan, and the West Bengal Food Processing and Horticulture Minister-in-Charge, Sri Sailen Sarkar, visited the Forlì-Cesena Chamber in 2005, with other important government officials.

In 2005, during Festa Italiana, the famous AC Milan U-18 team visited Kolkata. Accompanying the team was the legendary Brazilian soccer player, Leonardo, a former AC Milan player. The football match between AC Milan U-18 and Bengal U-21 at Yubabharati Krirangan was inaugurated by the Honourable Sports Minister of West Bengal, Sri Subhash Chakraborty.

In 2006, four trade Italian delegations visited Kolkata. The Chamber also took a multi-sector business delegation to Italy for instituitional meetings. The Kolkata Chapter felicitated the award winners of ‘Stella della Solidarieta Italiana 2006’, as part of its tenth anniversary celebrations. The Government of Italy had honoured some prominent Indian and Italian personalities with the decoration of ‘Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity’ in recognition of their significant contribution towards strengthening relations with Italy in the cultural, social and economic spheres.

The visit of H E Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in February 2007 to Kolkata has resulted in an increase of interest among businessmen towards business opportunites with Italy.

In March 2007, as part of the Chamber’s constant endeavor to increase awareness of Italy as a prime destination for tourism and business, as well as to keep local tour operators updated, the Chamber in collaboration with ENIT and the Italian Consulate organised a seminar for corporate companies and tour operators. The event was held at Kenilworth and included an interactive session on visas and a presentation of Italy, followed by the launch of the specially commissioned guide book, ‘The Little Book of Italy’.

In June 2007, a roadshow was organised in association with Inditalia & ICMQ on Italian building systems followed by business to business meetings for two Italian companies.

During Italian Festival - Festa Italiana this year, the Eastern Region will be organising a workshop on ‘The Italian Building System’ in collaboration with ICMQ; a concert, ‘All’opera dopo l’Opera’; business to business meetings for the CIRAT delegation (environment and medical equipment); an Italian Food Festival and a seminar for the Invest your Talent in Italy programme of leading universities of Italy.

The Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce in Kolkata currently boasts more than 130 members and its achievements and growing activities promise to attract even more, taking Indo-Italian partnership to an all-high level of success.

Regional Background

West Bengal

Agriculture is the leading occupation in West Bengal. Rice is the state's principal food crop and other food crops are maize, pulses, oil seeds, wheat, barley, potatoes and vegetables. Jute is the main cash crop of the region and the region is well known for Darjeeling and other high quality teas. Tobacco and sugarcane are also grown. However, the service sector is the largest contributor to the gross domestic product of the state, contributing 51 per cent of the state domestic product compared to 27 per cent from agriculture and 22 per cent from industry.

West Bengal has been one of India’s fastest growing states in the last decade, with a 5.2 per cent growth. In conjunction with practical measures to sustain investors' confidence, the West Bengal government has set in place a number of policy initiatives and has promulgated in quick succession a Bio-technology Policy, Mines and Mineral Policy, Information Technology Policy and Policy for IT enabled services. The State Government has also been the first in India to formulate an act on Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The first sector-specific SEZ in India is the Manikanchan Gem and Jewelry Park.

The West Bengal Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBIIDC) is the nodal state level agency for developing infrastructure specifically for the industrial sector, and has so far developed 12 growth centres (industrial estates) located at Kalyani, Falta, Uluberia, Bishnupur, Raninagar, Cooch Behar, Malda, Dabgram, Haldia and Kharagpur.

In recent years, WBIIDC has also been increasingly involved in developing infrastructures for the industry sector. With investment flow no longer a problem, WBIIDC's promotional activities could best be supplemented by providing state of the art industry specific 'parks' to investors.

The state has identified IT as a priority focus sector to be developed into a growth engine. In recent times, there has been explosive growth in the IT-Enabled Services segment, which has recorded over 100 per cent growth in employees in the last 5 years.

The core objective of the IT policy developed by the State is to allow different constituents within the State to leverage investments opportunities. In addition, the State is planning to leverage the IT opportunity for upliftment of the quality of life within the State.

Orissa

Orissa is notable as one of the first Indian states to have tackled its structural problems during the post 1994 Indian economic reforms. Orissa was the first state in India to begin to privatise its electricity transmission and distribution businesses. Over the period between 1994 and 2000 Orissa's former state electricity board (SEB) was restructured to form Gridco. This corporation was then divided into Transco and a collection of distribution companies. Attempts were then made to sell the distribution companies to the private sector. Like many other states, in 1996 Orissa was losing over 50 per cent of the electricity it was delivered. The scale and importance of these reforms is notable and an important milestone in India's dramatic economic development.

In Orissa, Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation Limited, Industrial Development Corporation Limited and Orissa State Electronics Development Corporation are the three nodal agencies for promotion of large and medium industries in the State. A number of mega industrial projects in sectors like steel, aluminium, oil refining, fertilizers, etc. involving large investment are in the pipeline. The state is providing institutional and financial support with various incentives and concessions for promotion of small-scale village and cottage industries.

Recently the number of companies who have signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) to set up steel plants in the state has gone up to 50. In power generation, Reliance Industries is putting up the world's largest power plant with an investment of US $13 billion at Hirma in Jharsuguda district. Vedanta Resources’ 1.4 million tons aluminium project in Kalahandi district is the largest investment in aluminium. Vedanta has also announced a $ 3.2 billion dollar huge private University project on the lines of the Ivy League Universities, which is unprecedented in the history of education in India.

The Central Government has agreed to accord SEZ (Special Economic Zone) status to eight sites in Orissa among which are Infocity at Bhubaneswar and Paradip.

The state is emerging as a player in the outsourcing IT and ITeS. In fact, India's topmost IT consulting firms, including Satyam Computer Services, TCS (Tata Consultancy Services), MindTree Consulting, Hexaware Technologies, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Infosys have large branches in the State. IBM, Syntel, Bosch and Wipro are setting up development centers in Orissa. So far, two of the S&P CNX 500 conglomerates have corporate offices in Orissa viz. National Aluminium (2005 gross income Rs 51,162 million) and Tata Sponge Iron (2005 gross income Rs.2,044 million).

Assam

The economy of Assam today represents a unique juxtaposition of backwardness amidst plenty. Growth rate of Assam’s income has not kept pace with that of India’s during the Post-British Era; differences increased rapidly since 1970s. While the Indian economy grew at 6 per cent per annum over the period of 1981 to 2000, that of Assam’s grew only by 3.3 per cent. In the post-liberalised era (after 1991), the gap between growth rates of Assam’s and India’s economy widened further.

In the current decade, according to recent analysis, Assam’s economy is showing signs of improvement. In the year 2001-2002, the economy grew 4.5 per cent, falling to 3.4 per cent in the next financial year. During 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 the economy grew more satisfactorily at 5.5 and 5.3 per cent respectively, whilst in 2005-2006 the growth rate scored above 6 per cent.

Agriculture accounts for more than a third of Assam’s income and employs 69 per cent of total workforce. Assam's biggest contribution to the world is its tea and the State produces some of the finest and most expensive teas in the world.

Assam also accounts for fair share of India’s production of rice, rapeseed, mustard, jute, potato, sweet potato, banana, papaya, areca nut and turmeric. Assam is also a home of large varieties of citrus fruits, leaf vegetables, vegetables, useful grasses, herbs, spices, etc, which are mostly subsistence crops.

Assam is a major producer of crude oil and natural gas in India. Asia’s first successful mechanically drilled oil well was drilled in Makum (Assam) way back in 1867. Most of the oilfields of Assam are located in the Upper Assam region of the Brahmaputra Valley. Assam has four oil refineries located at Guwahati, Digboi, Numaligarh and Bongaigaon with a total capacity of 7 MMTPA (Million Metric Tonnes per annum). Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemicals is the only S&P CNX 500 conglomerate with corporate office in Assam.

Although having a poor overall industrial performance, several other industries have nevertheless been started, including a chemical fertiliser plan, petrochemical industries, paper mills, sugar mills, cement plant at Bokajan, cosmetics plant (HLL) etc. Moreover, there are other industries such as jute mills, textile and yarn mills, silk mills, etc.