kolkata close on the heels of her industry summit chief minister mamata banerjee has received a proposal for more investment from mitsubishi chemicals holding corporation mchcthis is the first real breakthrough in attracting foreign direct investment fdi for the mamatimanush government mchc president and ceo yoshimitsu kobayashi has written to mamata saying his company wants to invest more in bengal in his letter kobayashi wrote that the group has been in haldia since 1997 and invested 800 million the company now wants to expand in bengal in keeping with the states bid for industrial revivalthe proposal is just what team mamata needs as the japanese conglomerate already has land at haldia at its disposal thus an investment proposal that too fdi sans land acquisition would be music to mamatas earsmitsubishi officials met finance minister amit mitra last week to talk about the possibilities a company source said the new government seems sincere and wants to pep up investment we would like to be a part of this investment zeal while new proposals will take time to crystallize for the moment we have held discussions with the government that our haldia plant would have enough material for downstream growth the possibility will emerge soon after the second plant is operational by december 2011 so there is scope for investment from products like pet resins pet fibres and pet filmsthe company has about 350 acres ready at hand to match its further investment plans of course the government has also been told that the recent extension has already cost mitshubishi about rs 4000 crore the first steps for fruition of further investment plans even after intense talks with the government may take at least six months the chief minister nevertheless is keenly eyeing the proposal in fact soon after the new government took over the reins of writers buildings japanese ambassador akitaka saiki came down to kolkata and met banerjee and mitra saiki told the cm about a substantive increase in investment plans from his own country he was vouching for the japanese business community that reads enormous investment possibilities in the historic change of guard in bengalnaturally mitshubishi is on the same page with the japanese government we have a lot of faith in this company which has plans lined up for bengal a highly placed source at the state secretariat told toi over the last three years the number of japanese firms in india has more than doubled to 725 out of which 19 have base operations in the state this includes mitshubishi chemical corporation which at 780 million so far is the largest fdi project in the statethe japanese government has also asked the state government to send an investment promotion mission of government and industry leaders to tokyo after identifying sectorspecific proposals for fdi the us too has shown similar interest as was expressed by robert blake us assistant secretary of state south and central asian affairs when he met mamata a fortnight agothe new cm is bent