Siliguri is described as the gateway to the North East of India. The strategic location of the city makes it a base for essential supplies to the region. Siliguri has gradually developed as a profitable centre for a variety of businesses. As a central hub, many national companies and organizations have set up their offices here. The Hong Kong market near Khudirampally is a chief hub for buying low cost Chinese goods and imported goods, nearby Seth Srilal Market, Sevoke Road and Hill Cart Road is a prominent place to buy daily use goods, and is very popular among people from nearby areas. 4 "T" s - Tea, Timber, Tourism and Transport are the main businesses of Siliguri. Recently many hotels had mushroomed up & a very good increment had been seen in this sector at past. Siliguri is the headquarters of FOCIN (Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of North Bengal). The latest development is the development of malls like COSMOS and ORBIT. The city recently also witnessed the arrival of its first set of multiplexes, CINEMAX in early Dec'09 and INOX at ORBIT on Christmas of 2009.

The rapidly growing city also has showrooms of numerous automobile companies such as Maruti Suzuki, Honda Siel, Toyota Kirloskar, Ford, Tata, JCB, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai, Skoda, General Motors. There are numerous two wheeler showrooms also of companies : Hero Honda, Kinetic, Honda scooters, Yamaha, Tvs, Suzuki, Bajaj, LML.

With the growing economic transactions there has opened up some major banks in the city namely Standard Chartered, HDFC, ICICI, Allahabad, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, UCO, Vijaya, IDBI and UBKG bank. There are also some other banks such as Bank of Maharastra, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Andhra Bank, Sonali Bank.

In a recent gesture of international co-operation and friendliness the road network of Siliguri is being used by the government of Nepal and Bangladesh so as to facilitate easy transportation of essential and urgent commodities (like rice etc.). The Silk Route of India i.e trade route between India and China is accessible only after crossing Siliguri (Nathula and Jelepla). Thus making it important for international trade between India and other countries and also among other countries. There also are business routes to Bhutan and security manned border with Bangladesh.