The Bihar Business Connect 2023 — a summit intended to attract entrepreneurs — got off to a flying start in Patna on Wednesday with its first two sessions attracting investments worth over Rs 2,000 crore and assurances by some of the big names in the corporate world to set up their units in the agrarian state.

The industries department signed the MoUs (Memorandums of Understanding) with entrepreneurs and industrial houses in the presence of industries department minister Samir Kumar Mahaseth and additional chief secretary Sandeep Poundrik.

These investments are in the sector of textile, leather, food processing and agriculture-related industries.

The MoUs include a Rs 800 crore unit by Spray Engineering Devices Limited, Rs 308 crore plant by Chandrika Power Private Limited, Rs 274 crore factory by Shavi Leathers, and Rs 250 crore facility by Auro Sundaram International Private Limited.

Around 600 delegates from India and 15 other countries are participating in the two-day business summit. More investments worth several hundred crores are expected by the end of the summit on Thursday.

Welcoming the participants, industries minister Mahaseth said that the aim of the event was to build up on the strengths, tradition and heritage of Bihar to attract industries and provide more employment opportunities in the state.

“We are working to take Bihar among the top 10 developed states in the next three years, and top five states in the next five years. We will help all industries in an unprecedented way if they come here. Every state where people of Bihar have gone to work has developed. It is now time to turn towards Bihar and make it great once again,” Mahaseth said.

The industries minister also appealed to the Centre to evaluate its policies and relax them for states like Bihar so that facilities like special economic zones (SEZ) could be developed.

Poundrik, on his part, gave a detailed presentation before the entrepreneurs about the industrial infrastructure and human resources in the state, connectivity to the markets and government support by way of interest subvention, tax incentives, and Rs 5000 per month for each employee in the industrial units to promote employment generation.

“Setting-up industries in Bihar will provide a market with 13 crore population, which could go up to 40 crore if we count Nepal, Bangladesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bhutan also,” Poundrik said.

Bihar agriculture secretary Sanjay Kumar Agarwal said that the state had sufficient raw materials — grains, fruits and vegetables — to cater to food processing industries and provided a wide scope in dairying, animal feed production, poultry, cold chain infrastructure, warehousing, agriculture implements, biofertilisers among other things.

Several entrepreneurs also spoke on the occasion, highlighting the fact that the majority of people working at their units were from Bihar, and expressing willingness to explore investment opportunities in the state.

Kamal Oswal of Nahar Group of Industries, which includes brands like Oswal and Monte Carlo, stressed that the textile industry was best suited for Bihar because it incurred less investment, yet created more employment than other sectors. He also asked Bihar to emulate Bangladesh, which has excelled in textile and garment manufacturing with global reach.

Laszlo Tarczy, an entrepreneur from Hungary, said that his company would establish a manufacturing unit for soft toys in Bihar. Vietnam Embassy trade counsellor Bui Trung Thuong offered technology transfer, training, quality control and supply chain management expertise to Bihar for its textile sector.

Tushar Jain of High Spirit Commercial Ventures said that his two manufacturing units in Bihar would start shipping 10 lakh backpacks per month from next year.