Global Investors Summit in the NER on the cards

Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (NER), G. Kishan Reddy today said central and state governments need to jointly work to develop an investment-friendly environment in the NER.

Addressing the North Eastern Council (NEC)’s 70th Plenary meeting in Guwahati today which was attended by senior officials from the eight North Eastern States and central ministries, Kishan Reddy emphasised the need for private investment and suggested that a few top-priority/target sectors need to be identified and work on increasing investment potential of the region and overcoming bottlenecks in those sectors.

Despite many steps taken by state governments and the Centre, the region still does not get lot of private investment. In fact there is no central policy for industrial policy in the Northeast as The North East Industrial Development Scheme which came into force on April 1, 2017 expired on March 31 this year.

Sources said all those who want to set up fresh unit will have to wait for the new policy to come to effect. Not only that, there is so much of delay in notifying the policy and by that time much of the time is lost in availing the benefits.

The Minister said that a Global Investors Summit for NER should be organized soon and all State Governments should start undertaking measures for developing an investor friendly ecosystem.

Various measures such as changing the policies to suit the needs of investors, digitizing land banks, having plot level information, simplifying processes, providing single window clearance system, developing inventory of readily investible projects, establishing an investors’ facilitation centre in each State, investing on supporting infrastructure like approach roads, power connectivity, water supply etc, must be undertaken, he added.

He called upon the senior officers to work on to chalk out an action plan for the Global Investors Summit in the coming months.

He said that the Centre has been working relentlessly to establish peace and stability, enhance connectivity in the region and have attained considerable success as well.

He said that NER has entered its ‘Amrit Samay’ and we need to take complete advantage of this and awaken all possibilities of growth and development. The minister impressed upon the officers that the goal of making NER the growth engine of India can be reached only with complete coordination between the center and state governments.

He further added that all stakeholders, Centre, States, private sector need to work jointly and focus on further enhancing infrastructure and connectivity in the region.

He said that complete and targeted utilization of the 10% GBS for the NER States is the key to rapid development. Regular analysis of 10% GBS utilization needs to be done and accordingly reorienting of policies, overcoming data bottlenecks and striking coordination with central line ministries must be done, he added. He all urged all State government officers to give their recommendations to ensure effective utilization, such as amending policies, guidelines etc.

He said that an Agri Task Force which was recently constituted shall soon release its final report. He said that the task force findings must be leveraged to ensure that complete utilization in this financial year.

The Minister also suggested that there is a need to conduct a “strengths and weaknesses analysis” and “identify gaps in key sectors”. This would help in more targeted developmental initiatives.

He further added that while selecting project factors such as NER district-wise SDG index, aspirational districts, connectivity to rural habitations and areas and level of poverty indices should be taken into consideration. He also urged the officials to ensure good tendering norms and robust monitoring.

Reflecting on tourism potential of the region, the minister said that the Ministry of DoNER is constituting a Tourism Task Force to ensure realization of complete potential of the region. He said that developing tourism infrastructure, skilling and capacity building are the core priorities for developing Tourism in the region.

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