Appetisers for Bengal business summit

ALL DRESSED UP: The Biswa Bangla Convention Centre on the arterial Biswa Bangla Sarani of New Town gets ready for the fourth edition of the Bengal Global Business Summit that will be inaugurated by chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday. The New Town address, inaugurated in October last year, is one of the largest convention centres in the country. The 18-storey building is 95 feet tall and covers an area of 4.57 lakh square feet and it has a parking facility for over 700 cars. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

TT, 15 January 2018, Calcutta: The menu for the fourth edition of the Bengal Global Business Summit was set by twin appetisers on Monday: an appeal by chief minister Mamata Banerjee to land-losers to draw investors with "love and affection" and a Rs 100-crore investment plan by the master franchisee for KFC and Pizza Hut in the state.

"We have to keep it in mind that the more we draw them closer with love and affection, the more they will invest here," Mamata said at Salboni, West Midnapore.

The business summit, scheduled to begin on Tuesday, is expected to be attended by Mukesh Ambani, Lakshmi Mittal, Uday Kotak and Sajjan Jindal.

On the eve of the summit, Devyani International, the Calcutta-based franchisee, signed an MoU with the state food processing industries and horticulture department to set up more restaurants at an estimated investment of Rs 100 crore over the next five years.

"For a period of five years, the company wants to set up four to five KFC restaurants and two to three Pizza Hut restaurants annually in Bengal. The expansion plan will generate 1,400 employment opportunities, both direct and indirect," said Nandini Chakraborty, the food processing and horticulture secretary.

Devyani International CEO Rajat Luthra said the business volume in its existing 19 restaurants in the city suggested "we can have 50" more.