Shri Jena spoke about the upcoming opportunities in Chemical and Petrochemical sector in India and the commitment of Government to provide world class infrastructure for its growth in the PCPIR regions. He mentioned about the already functional PCPIR at Dahej and the new upcoming PCPIR at Haldia, Andhra Pradesh and Paradeep, Orissa. He talked about the attractiveness of Orissa as an investment destination for French companies as a PCPIR in Paradeep area of Orissa is under the process of approval by Govt. of India. He also mentioned that within the proposed PCPIR of Orissa, there could be SEZs, Plastic Parks, Growth Centres which would provide investment opportunities in the entire value chain of petrochemicals.

Shri Jena was leading a high level delegation to France to promote investment in the sector. The delegation to Francein cluded Joint Secretary, Dept. of Chemicals & Petrochemicals Ms Neel Kamal Darbari, MD-GIDC Shri Arvind Agarwal, DG, CIPET Dr. S.K. Nayak, Advisor FICCI Shri Rajan Kohli and representatives of chemical industry. Presentations were made by Ms. Darbari who introduced the concept of PCPIR to the gathering. MD of Gujarat Industries Development Corporation (GIDC) Shri Arvind Agarwal gave a detailed presentation of the PCPIR being developed at Dahej (Gujarat). He invited French companies to invest in Dahej which has already witnessed a commitment of US $ 15 billion investment in its PCPIR region.

During the visit, the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology (CIPET) of India signed an MoU with Moselle Department's ISEETECH (European Higher Institute for the Enterprise & its Techniques - France) at a formal ceremony in Metz, Moselle, France in the presence of the Shri Jena. With the signing of this MoU, the stage is set for exchange of knowledge between the two institutions on the theme of cooperation in higher education, research and technology transfer in the field of plastic engineering & technology, particularly in the sector of transportation and aviation. President, Moselle Department Council Mr. Phillip Leroy and Prefect of Lorraine Region & Moselle Department Mr. Bernard Niquet welcomed the Minister and the Indian delegation on occasion of signing the MoU.

The delegation also visited PPE (Reinforced Plastics Centre) in Sant-Avold, which is a reputed international Technology Transfer Centre specialised in implementation of reinforced composites with long fibres with thermosetting and thermoplastic matrix composites. PPE has recently helped ISEETECH create a high quality service for industry and R&D by setting up the new Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) platform with a large array of technologies. It is expected that with the signing of this MoU, CIPET would benefit by the high degree of technological expertise of ISEETECH & PPE.