Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will leave for Spain via Dubai tomorrow to meet businessmen and representatives of chambers of commerce and invite them to join the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS), which is scheduled to be held in November.
She will be accompanied by the state chief secretary, HK Dwivedi. The two-day BGBS will be held on 22-23 November, and a preconference dinner will be held on 21 November.
Miss Banerjee is scheduled to depart for Dubai tomorrow morning for a brief stay of one day. Following that, she will travel to Madrid to meet with various businessmen.
Subsequently, she plans to journey to Barcelona by road, where she intends to spend three days engaging in discussions with businessmen regarding potential investments in Bengal. It’s noteworthy that Spain held the role of the theme country at the Kolkata International Book Fair 2023, which occurred earlier this year. Miss Banerjee took the opportunity to extend an invi- tation to the Spanish delegation to visit Bengal during the Bengal Glob- al Business Summit (BGBS).
While addressing a press conference at Nabanna this afternoon, she did not elaborate on the kind of discussion she would be having with the businessmen in Spain and Dubai.
Upon her return journey, Banerjee has scheduled a meeting with both businessmen and mem- bers of the Indian Diaspora in Dubai. She is expected to arrive back in Kolkata on 23 September. The Ministry of Home Affairs approved her visit seven days ago.
The chief minister said she had held a meeting with senior officials of the state government, including Home Secretary BP Gopalika, who will head the administration in the absence of the chief secretary. “Because of the rainy season, the state administration is on high alert, and the officials will discharge their duties in my absence,” she said.
Before leaving for the Middle East and Europe, Miss Banerjee made a few changes in the state cabinet.
Jyoti Priya Mallick has been given the addition- al charge of the depart- ment of public enterprises and industrial reconstruction. Arup Roy will look after the department of Food Processing Industries and Horticulture. Earlier, he used to look after the state cooperation department, which will now be looked after by Praddip Mazumdar in addition to his duties as the minister in charge of the state panchayat and rural development departments.
Indranil Sen will look after the tourism department (independent charge) along with the information and cultural affairs departments. Mohammad Ghulam Rabbani will look after the environment department.