kolkata more than 5000 delegates from 18 countries will focus largely on 11 sectors at the third edition of bengal global business summit bgbs which is all set to take off on january 20 as scheduled despite the uproar over demonetisation the programme will be coordinated by iimcalcutta the state government and delhibased ispirt manipal global foundation chairman t v mohandas pai is likely to spearhead the startup sessionswe are getting a good responseso far we have been assured that president pranab mukherjee will inaugurate the summit and chief minister mamata banerjee will address the gathering there will be 3000 delegates in the plenary session and another 2500 will participate in sectoral sessions finance minister amit mitra saidthis time the focus will be on maritime inland waterways transport civil aviation auto auto ancillary manufacturing in defence sports goods manufacturing sme vendor development mining energy renewables and cgd manufacturing of energy equipment che micals and fertilizers food processing horticulture fisheries agriculture and allied industries and so onthere will be delegates from china germany japan korea thailand singapore italy russia poland malaysia norway myanmar uae canada bangladesh and vietnam we had a detailed discussion with china and they are sending a huge delegation russia is sending a 30 member team and healthy delegation will also come from poland and germany mitra saidthis year there will be special focus on the startups the govern ment will pay special attention to the youth particularly the students who are interested in star ting their own business mitra added according to him there will be large contingent of homegrown startupsthere is a concerted effort to project bengal as the preferred investment destination through a plethora of industryfriendly policies the state government is committed towards inclusive and sustainable development providing increasing employment opportunities and building bengal into a manufacturing hub mitra said