Biswajit invites investors to Manipur at 12th northeast business summit

IMPHAL | Nov 16

Minister of commerce and industries Thongam Biswajit Singh invited investors from across the country to visit and invest in Manipur, terming the state the gateway of India to southeast Asia, said a release from DIPR.

The minister was speaking at the twelfth northeast business summit which was inaugurated in New Delhi today. Themed ‘transforming northeast: the engine for India’s growth’, the two-day summit is organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Manipur is the state partner for the event.

Speaking at the inauguration, union minister of state (independent charge) for development of north eastern region (DoNER) Jitendra Singh said that while developed states such as Gujarat and Maharashtra have achieved their maximum potential, northeast has a lot of unexplored potential which will contribute to the making of ‘new India’ and meeting the aspirations of the youth, who make 70 percent of the Indian population.

Biswajit said Manipur will provide good investment opportunities in various industries because railway connectivity is reaching Imphal by 2019 and the trans-asian highways is expected to connect the ASEAN countries. Look East and Act East policies will connect the northeast states to the southeast Asian countries and boost the economy and relationships in the region, he said.

The state has recently developed four industrial estates in Imphal West, Imphal East, Toubal and Bishnupur districts, with five more in other districts in the pipeline, Biswajit added. The thrust areas of industrial activities in the state would be food-based agro-horti industries, medicinal and herbal aromatic plant industries, bamboo and bamboo products processing industries, coffee, tea and rubber plantations, spices processing and mineral based industries, he continued.

Manipur also has huge potential in the tourism sector, he said citing its natural beauty including the Loktak Lake and Keibul Lamjao. He continued that people of Manipur are specialised in hospitality and tourism and the state has many English-speaking youth.

Stressing that more than 2000 patients came to Manipur for medical tourism from Myanmar and other neighbouring countries last year, he said the state can also initiate medical tourism.

He invited the investors attending the event to also visit the Manipur Sangai festival and the business development summit both of which begin on November 21.

Union minister Jitendra Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi accords high priority to the peripheral states. If one region of the country is underdeveloped, the country cannot be developed, he said

He also suggested that the thriving business sector of bamboo should be taken out of the purview of the forest sector and every district should have a post office and passport kendra for facilitating business in the region. A northeast industrial promotion policy is also in the pipeline, he added.

DoNER ministry is exploring the introduction of a helicopter-based dispensary or OPD service in remote areas where no doctor or medical facility is available, he said, adding that the first such experiment will be done in Imphal and Shillong.

The event was also attended by Mizoram Governor Lt. Gen. Nirbhay Sharma,  DoNER secretary Naveen Verma,  ministry of external affairs secretary (east) Preeti Saran,  union government’s principal scientific advisor R Chidambaram,  ICC northeast regional committee and tea board chairman PK Bezboruah, additional chief secretary at Assam government’s department of industries and commerce Ravi Capoor, IRS Secretary IWAI Shashi Bhushan Shukla, ICC President Shashwat Goenka and ICC Director General Rajeev Singh, the release added.