Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal on Tuesday welcomed a Polish proposal to turn farmers into food entrepreneurs by investing in food processing technologies and farm machinery in Punjab.
On a visit to Poland, Sukhbir, addressing a gathering at a business seminar organised by the Indo-Polish Chamber of Commerce at the Agriculture Ministry, said that Punjab wanted its farmers to take the next step towards becoming entrepreneurs and could follow Poland’s model.
A statement issued in Chandigarh, quoted him saying how the advances made by Polish companies in the agriculture and allied agriculture sector could be made to good use. He accepted a proposal by Polish Deputy Minister for Agriculture Tadeusz Nalewajk for joint cooperation in this sector to raise income levels in the farm sector in both countries.
He also invited Poland to become one of the partner countries in the forthcoming Invest Punjab summit, scheduled to be held at Chandigarh in October end.
Deputy Chief Minister also gave a detailed presentation to Polish government officials and investors highlighting how the Punjab government had, through two twin initiatives, kick-started recent investment of Rs 15,000 crore into the state.
Polish Deputy Minister for Agriculture Tadeusz Nalewajk announced a “Go India campaign” for Polish investors. “Poland has also developed an extremely high quality farming system suited for small family farms. This system would be very suited to Punjab also,” he said while adding that small food and agro processing could boost rural economy considerably.
Polish Deputy Minister of Economy Arkadiusz Bak said that Poland was keen to boost trade relations with India and there was a great scope of economic cooperation between both countries.
Invest Punjab CEO Anirudh Tewari gave an overview of investment in Punjab and the steps
being taken to facilitate new investment.