Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will leave on Tuesday for an 11-day tour of Spain and the UAE to attract investments ahead of the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) and enhance cultural and sports ties.
She held a brief media conference on Monday afternoon to share tentative details of her itinerary.
“I am spending (Tuesday) in Dubai because there are no (available) connecting flights. On Wednesday, we will go to Madrid for a three-day stay. There, we will have a business summit, meeting NRIs, and a lot of other programmes,” said Mamata, whose last trip overseas was to Germany and Italy for 12 days in 2018.
“Then, from (Madrid), we will go to Barcelona, where we have two-three days of programmes, for the BGBS. After which, we will return to Dubai and conduct a BGBS meeting, a meeting with NRIs… over a day and a half,” she added. Mamata is scheduled to return on September 23.
In the past, the chief minister had been to Europe to attract foreign investments, visiting the UK, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The UAE will be her second Asian destination for such a purpose after Singapore in 2014.
Mamata said since she and chief-secretary H.K. Dwivedi would be travelling abroad, home secretary B.P. Gopalika would be in charge of the state administration.
Sources in her government said Mamata was likely to focus on the main areas of economic activities in Spain, such as tourism and textile, besides the automotive industry.
“Spain was our international partner at the book fair this time, and the BGBS is taking place soon… where they are likely to be our partner. Their films, paintings, football… everything is very popular. Their manufacturing is very important,” she said.
“Hope for the best,” added the Trinamul Congress chief.
Travelling with representatives of football clubs Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting, Mamata would be joined in Barcelona by former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly. Indian football captain Sunil Chhetri was also supposed to join her, but he has pulled out of the trip after the recent birth of his first child.
Asked about the possibility of meetings with the top brass of FC Barcelona and La Liga, Mamata said: “How can I give you all the details before I leave?”
“We are going for Bengal, something must be done,” she added.
Mamata repeatedly underscored that the forthcoming trip was her first one abroad in five years.
In June 2018, she had cancelled her nine-day trip to China hours before her flight as Beijing could not confirm her meetings with the Communist Party of China’s leadership at an appropriate level. In 2017, Mamata was “advised” by the Centre against going to China to seek investments because of the India-China border standoff at Doklam.
In September 2018, she had blamed an “unholy conspiracy” for her not being able to attend a Chicago event commemorating the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s address at the World’s Parliament of Religions.
In September 2021, the Centre had denied her permission for a visit to Rome to participate in a World Peace Conference. In December of that year, the Centre disallowed Mamata from visiting Nepal, where she had been invited by the Nepali Congress.
“I did not get permission to (go abroad) for five years, although there were many invites. Now, too, I have many invites, but I do not want to go too far so that if there is an emergency, I can return promptly,” said Mamata.
Showcause
The Trinamul legislature party’s recently formed disciplinary committee under parliamentary affairs minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay is likely to showcause 49 of the party's MLAs for their absence from the discussion and passing of the resolution on Bangla Diwas and the state anthem on Thursday.
The resolution was passed with 167 votes in its favour from the treasury benches while 62 BJP MLAs voted against it.
In the 294-seat House (there were two vacancies when the voting took place), even without the six defectors from the BJP, Trinamul had 216 MLAs on Thursday.
