NewZNew (Warsaw/Poland) : Punjab Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today welcomed a Polish proposal to turn farmers into food entrepreneurs by investing in food processing technologies and farm machinery in Punjab.

Addressing an august gathering at a business seminar organised by the Indo Polish Chamber of Commerce at the Agriculture ministry here, Mr Badal said Punjab wanted its farmers to take the next step towards becoming entrepreneurs and could follow Poland’s model. He invited Polish investors to establish small food and fruit processing units. “Once these take off they could be replicated elsewhere also and help in reducing food wastage in our country”, he added.

Mr Sukhbir Badal also detailed 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 being held at Chandigarh in end October.

The Deputy CM also gave a detailed presentation to Polish government officials and investors. He detailed how the Punjab government had through two twin initiatives kickstarted recent investment of Rs 15,000 crore into the State. He said the government had come out with an industrial policy which came out with incentives including VAT retention. He said besides this the State had created a new Invest Punjab office which had led to fast clearance of all new projects within 30 to 35 days.

Speaking on the occasion, Polish Deputy minister for agriculture Tadeusz Nalewajk announced a “Go India” campaign for Polish investors. He said Poland had also developed an extremely high quality farming system suited for small family farms. “This system would be very suited to Punjab also”, he said adding small food and Agro processing could boost rural economy considerably.

Polish Deputy minister of Economy Arkadiusz Bak while speaking said Poland was keen to boost trade relations with India and there was a great scope of economic cooperation between both countries.

Polish Foreign Investment department Director Ilona Chojnowsla highlighted how Poland’s economy had been boosted with the creation of 14 SEZs and how Polish investors were expanding their businesses overseas. Representatives of more than 20 Polish companies were also present on the occasion.

Invest Punjab CEO Anirudh Tewari gave an overview of investment in Punjab and the steps being taken to facilitate new investment. Two businessmen who are part of the Punjab government team – Bhavdeep Sardana of Sukhjit Starch and Anoop Bector of Bector Foods provided a perspective of the investment climate for prospective Polish entrepreneurs.

Others present on the occasion were Jangveer Singh, Media Advisor to the Deputy chief minister, Additional chief secretary Suresh Kumar and additional principal secretary P.S. Aujla.