DIPR
DIMAPUR, JULY 2
Two meetings were held in the Secretariat of North East Council in Shillong on July 1. The first meeting was held to review all on-going projects supported by the council while the second was held to discuss preparation of the regional plans for the industry sector. The meetings were chaired by Ameising Luikham, Secretary of NEC. The meeting was attended by state government officials and representatives from the CII, ICC, and FICCI.
The industry sector has 34 ongoing projects. They comprise 3 from Arunachal Pradesh, 3 from Assam, 3 from Manipur, 2 from Meghalaya, 4 from Mizoram, 3 from Nagaland, 2 from Sikkim, 3 from Tripura and 11 regional projects.
Luikham said that the NEC would focus on industries that have competitive advantage and also based on the locally available resources. The region has strengths in agro processing industry and handloom and handicrafts. He said that there is scope for NEC and NSIC to work together for the unemployed youths.
Also, adviser for Banking, Industries and Tourism Gautam Chintey requested the states to focus on timely completion of the on-going projects under the sector to achieve the overall development objectives of government. He mentioned that the industries’ sector is committed to the overall socio-economic development of NE region with the objective of dovetailing NEC Schemes with the schemes of central government.
Luikham said that it is the time to think for a regional planning strategy for the NE Region to support the North Eastern Region as a whole. CII, ICC and FICCI gave their views for the development of a regional plan for industries sector. The participants elucidated the need for providing an enabling environment for doing business in the region. They also said that much needs to be done in improving the industrial infrastructure especially reliability of power supply.
Another major issue which was flagged was the land laws in the hill states for facilitating industrialization. Connectivity to South-East Asian countries, access to ports in Bangladesh especially for Tripura, use of waterways for economic activity and connectivity within the region and to main land India were highlighted.
As regards the Look East Policy, the ICC, CII and FICCI leaders in the meeting said that a “holistic plan” needs to be developed for the region as a whole to benefit from this policy.
