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The two day 7th Northeast Business Summit was held in New Delhi on January 6-7,
2012 with an aim to discuss the possible opportunities for investment and trade
in the region. The forum provided a platform for a formal interaction between
potential investors and government functionaries. Over the years insurgency
posed the biggest hurdle in attracting investment to the region, but with many
groups coming forward for talks now, the fear psychosis among the people has
declined and investors are slowly looking forward to invest in the region. Union
Home Minister P Chidambaram, on the occasion, assured industry stakeholders of
state’s complete intolerance to any kind of violence.
Chidambaram used the platform to invite other groups to come forward for talks
with the government. “The big take away from 2010 to 2011 was that the most
insurgent groups have realized that violence will not yield the desired result
and state will not tolerate any kind of violence, and it is through dialogue
that all the issues can be resolved amicably,” said Chidambaram. During the
event, participating members discussed the new government schemes and projects
in line with the socio economic development of the region. They stressed the
need for creation of better job opportunities, infrastructure, health
facilities, tourism prospects, communication and connectivity, schools, colleges
and professional institutions, and other aspects that are needed for intensive
growth in the region.
“The whole idea is to remove poverty and generate employment. And for this we
need to give importance to the education and health sectors. These are two
important areas that we need to focus,” said Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi
during his speech at the summit.
Promotion of border trade with Myanmar and Bangladesh were among the key points
of discussion at the summit. Representatives from both Bangladesh and Myanmar
also expressed their concerns with the audiences. Currently the trade between
India and Bangladesh crossed the US$5 five billion mark in 2011 whereas with
Myanmar, it is expected to cross the US$3 billion mark. “We have to allow the
exchange of goods produced within the entire India and Bangladesh mainland, as
this is the only way we can understand the intention of the two leaders,” said U
Tariq Ahmad from Bangladesh.
Ministry of Development of North East Region (DoNER) and Indian Chamber of
Commerce jointly organized the summit to channelise these vast resources for the
overall growth and development of the northeast region. However, Chidambaram
added that while the North East presents massive opportunities for profitable
investment across a large number of investors it is important to showcase that
opportunities present in the North East offer a better return on investment than
other regions across India to actually attract investors. Contrary to the
persistent perception of the region being conflict prone, Chidambaram emphasized
that, courtesy tireless efforts by the Centre and the respective State
Governments violence, and unrest have considerably reduced in the region.
Businesses should, as such, be necessarily encouraged to invest in the North
East, he pointed out. While efforts at restoring peace are truly commendable,
efforts have to be undertaken for creating an enabling policy environment for
optimal resource utilization to generate the requisite investor attention in the
region, he reiterated.
Echoing similar sentiments Paban Singh Ghatowar the union minister, reiterated
that the Ministry of DoNER in collaboration with the Centre and the specific
State Governments has made tireless efforts in projecting the North East’s
enormous potential. Agro and Food Processing, Mining and Minerals, Horticulture,
Tourism and Hospitality all present massive opportunities in the region for
profitable investment. DoNER has played a highly proactive role in devising an
enabling policy environment to create the requisite investor attention within
the land locked region.
Addressing the Valedictory Session on January 7, 2012 as the chief guest, Deputy
Chairman, Planning Commission, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia underlined the
critical importance that infrastructure and connectivity holds for the future
development of the North East, according to an ICC release. For this purpose,
greater private sector intervention in the form of innovative PPP models need to
be devised, he stated.
Commenting on the prospects of the Tourism Industry in the North East, Dr.
Ahluwalia said that the North East as whole can be better marketed than
individual states to the domestic and international tourist community. With
respect to Hydro Power, he urged for the formation of close working groups
between Industry and the respective State Governments to analyze the progress of
the projects and identify the associated problems for fast-track implementation.
Commenting on Skill Development he opined that while the region boasts of a
comparatively higher literacy rate, private intervention is necessary to
generate the requisite employable skills, a critical requirement for the North
East’s industrial development. In conclusion, Dr Ahluwalia reiterated that
contrary to the popular perception, tireless efforts on part of the State
Governments have brought in the much needed peace in the region to give
investors the necessary encouragement to enter the North East.
Congratulating ICC for successfully organizing the North East Business Summit
for the 7th time, in his address as the Summit Chairman, Union Minister Of DoNER
and Mines, Paban Singh Ghatowar said “courtesy the relentless efforts undertaken
in projecting the North East’s investment potential, Rs 12,000 crore worth of
Investments have been realized in the region till date; truly a remarkable
achievement”, the release further mentions. Echoing similar views Dy. CM,
Meghalaya, BM Langong emphasized the requirement of State Governments to take up
the onus in solving the problems related to insurgencies in the region. The
panellists at the Session also included ICC office bearers M.K. Saharia and
Srivardhan Goenka. Thanking the participating partners for making the Summit a
grand success Mr Saharia mentioned that the Conference could generate interest
in project proposals amounting to Rs 2751.25 crore. In the earlier sessions
important discussions on Border Trade and Agro and Food Processing were
undertaken.
Meanwhile during yet another session on January 7 on technology, Parliamentary
Secretary for Health and Family Welfare, Food and Civil Supplies, Government of
India Nido Pavitra drew the attention of investors and policy makers on the
urgent need for dissemination of knowledge by interlinking primary, secondary
and tertiary level health centres by IT applications. Joining the panel
discussion on ‘How to enhance technical services in NE and develop chances of
employment’ Pavitra said that IT can enable health related information in the
web, create PPP model, help customer contact, allocate patient to different
levels of health care, provide electronic forum for patient interaction and
build e-prescription system etc.
He asserted that it was high time to explore how doctors and IT personnel can
work together to reduce healthcare cost, deliver high quality service and cover
rural masses. “The NE has an inherent handicap in the form of communication
bottlenecks with very challenging topography, adverse climate, lack of trained
manpower and non-availability of specialized human resources. Under such
circumstances, we must harness the potential of technological services, which is
now at our doorstep with new promises and hope,” Pavitra said, while adding that
IT can be similarly used in PDS and issue and renewal of licenses by outsourcing
in the PPP model that will even result in employment generation.
He was of the view that to develop public sector portals or platforms,
governments can take the assistance of forums like the Indian Chamber of
Commerce (organizers of the Business Summit) to internally develop, outsource
and provide such services to consumers and general public.
Another important aspect of technology, Pavitra pointed out,was the Health
Information Technology (HIT) that can provide an umbrella framework to describe
comprehensive management of health information for secure exchange between
consumers, service providers, government and insurers. “It will be the most
promising tool for improving the overall quality, safety and efficiency of the
health delivery system and will improve healthcare quality, prevent medical
errors, reduce healthcare costs, increase administrative efficiencies, decrease
paperwork and expand access to affordable care,” he explained.
Citing IT sectors that can be beneficially utilized in the North East,
particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, the Parliamentary Secretary emphasized on
telemedicine, which, he said, will help eliminate distance barriers and can
improve access to medical services for rural communities.
In the same line, he pointed out that tele-monitoring, tele-nursing, tele-pharmacy,
and specialist care delivery such as tele-cardiology, tele-psychiatry, tele-radiology,
tele-pathology, tele-dermatology, tele-dentistry, and tel-esurgery etc can be
made available through video-conferencing and transmission of data for patients
residing in underserved areas. Incidentally, telemedicine was introduced in
Arunachal Pradesh after a tripartite agreement between ISRO, NEC and the State
Government in 2006 under a project called ‘Development of Telemedicine Network
for the NE Region’ approved by NEC.
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