Focus on removing trade barriers
SHILLONG: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Friday inaugurated the 3rd Act East Business Show 2016 on the State Central Library premises in the presence of representatives and delegates from South Asian nations.
The three-day programme under the theme “Strengthening South East Asia with NE India”, is being organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in collaboration with the Department of Commerce and Industries, Government of Meghalaya.
Apart from the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) business delegation, the event is being attended by representatives from Nepal, Laos PDR (People’s Democratic Republic) and Thailand among others.
As part of the event, round table discussions on sectors, themes and issues will also be held in the concurrent sessions in the next two days.
Delivering the inaugural address, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma recollected as to how the persistent efforts and engagement of the North Eastern states with the Government of India had set the ball rolling for strengthening trade and business ties across the borders and expressed his gratitude to the ICC for providing the platform to take forward this initiative to a higher level.
“The signing of BBIN Motor Vehicle Agreement is a result of this effort,” he said.
Sangma was upbeat about the positive response from the Government of India after the NE states had taken up with it for increased connectivity in the region, as a result of which a number of National Highways are coming up, he said.
The Central Government has also identified potential rivers of North East for National Inland Waterways and five of such rivers are in Meghalaya alone, he added, saying, “Five years from now any area in the region that has business potential will be well connected,” the Chief Minister said.
Stating that there was a lot of untapped potentiality in the region Sangma urged upon the stakeholders at the business summit to explore possibilities of using bamboo and biomass as alternative energy sources and also capture Meghalaya’s potentiality in wind and solar energy during their discussion in the next two days.
He also called for the need to have a sector-wise summit and discussions on country-specific opportunities.
On issues that create barriers in business across the borders as brought up by the President of Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Abdul Matlub Ahmad, the Chief Minister assured that such matters would be taken up collectively so as to have a natural system of dismantling the barriers.
He also thanked Bangladesh for driving the approach of opening up borders for trade and commerce and people to people contact more aggressively.
Ahmad in his address expressed keenness to invest in many sectors Meghalaya and sought the Chief Minister’s intervention in having more than one entry point to the State. He also urged the Chief Minister to ensure that a testing laboratory is in place in Dawki as Bangladesh intends to export its food products to the State.
He called for declaring Shillong and Sylhet as twin cities for forging stronger friendship between Meghalaya and Bangladesh.
Others who spoke during the inaugural function include Nepal’s Ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay, Ambassador of Laos PDR, Southam Sakonhninhnom, Second Director, Thai SME Association, Anong Intharak, NEC member, CK Das, ICC President, Shiv Siddhant Kaul and Director General, ICC, Dr. Rajeev Singh.