Council to focus on industries with competitive advantage
SHILLONG: The industries sector of the North Eastern Council (NEC) has 34 ongoing projects in the region including two in Meghalaya, three each in Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura, four in Mizoram, two in Sikkim besides 11 regional projects.
In a meeting held at the NEC Secretariat on Tuesday, all the ongoing projects supported by the NEC were reviewed while a second meeting was also held to discuss the preparation of the regional plan for the industries sector under the chairmanship of Secretary, NEC Ameising Luikham.
The meeting was attended by State Government Officials and representatives from CII, ICC and FICCI.
Luikham said that the NEC will focus on industries which have a competitive advantage and are also based on the locally available resources.
“The region has strengths in agro processing industry, handloom and handicrafts,” he said adding that there is scope for the NEC and NSIC to work together for the unemployed youths.
Adviser (Banking, Industries and Tourism), NEC, Gautam Chintey urged the states to focus on timely completion of the on-going projects under the sector to achieve the overall development objectives of the government.
He said that the industries sector is committed to the overall socio-economic development of the Northeastern 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 NE 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 cited 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.