UK, Luxembourg to attend bussines summit with biggest-ever India delegation

KOLKATA: United Kingdom and Luxembourg, two of the partner countries in the fifth edition of Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS), will be attending the mega event with its biggest-ever delegation in India.

Luxembourg

will be the partner country in any business summit in India for the first time. There are 12 partner countries for this edition of

BGBS

— three more from the last edition.


The partner countries in this edition are Japan, Germany, Italy, Poland, Republic of Korea, France, Czech Republic, the

UK

and the UAE, Australia, Finland and Luxembourg.

This time, the number of delegates, too, may cross the 4,000-mark — the number of attendees in the last edition. There will be country session on Luxembourg this time. The delegation will be headed by its ambassador Jean Claude Kugener. He will be accompanied by CEOs of six companies of the country — Paul Wurth, Rotarex Engineering, Boson Energy, Ceratizit, Amer Sil Ketex and law firm Arend & Medernach.

“It is a real pleasure to be back in Kolkata and a great honour that Luxembourg is a partner country in this year’s Bengal Global Business Summit. This is an important year as we are celebrating the 70th anniversary of our diplomatic relations and our close friendship. I am extremely happy as well to be accompanied by six Luxembourg companies, two of which, Ceratizit and Amer-Sil Ketex, have their Indian headquarters in West Bengal with different production sites. We are looking forward to fruitful discussions and exchanges,” the ambassador added.

Sources in the state government said Britain was open for partnership with Bengal as a gateway for east and northeast. There will be a joint session on start-ups as well. Crispin Simon, trade commissioner to South Asia, Helen Dewberry, senior portfolio manager, UK Research & Innovation, Rakesh Roshan, CEO, OxSight Ltd and R Heald, CEO, UKIBC will be part of the delegation. “With technology and innovation being an overarching theme, the session would map out the journey from the conceptualisation stage to industry readiness & further commercialization, and would deliberate on how Bengal and Britain can partner in each of these stages,” added sources.

Meanwhile, the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco) has come up with elaborate arrangements for the upcoming BGBS to be held at Biswa Bangla Convention Centre.

The authorities have made elaborate arrangements for parking of vehicles that would bring delegates for the summit. A multi-level car parking arrangement has been made inside the convention centre compound where about 600 cars can be accommodated, while an additional ground-level car parking arrangement is being made on the other side of the canal where over 3,000 vehicles can be accommodated.

Following instructions from the state secretariat to have a direct link from the parking lot to the convention centre for delegates to walk in, a new bridge has been constructed across Bagjola canal. After parking vehicles on the other side of the canal, delegates can directly walk in to the convention centre using the new bridge.