From Nabamita Mitra
TURA: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said on Saturday an outreach programme of the magnitude that Meghalaya is initiating with Bangladesh was not done before.
Speaking to The Shillong Times at the Wangala festival, Sangma said, “There have been a lot of activities and economic exchanges have been taking place at the individual level without a coordinated effort… This effort is to bring all stakeholders together, create an infrastructure and mechanism where we enable more economic activities to take place but keeping in mind all safety measures are in place.”
The chief minister pointed out that that “it is a process” and that results will not be perceived immediately but “we do expect immediate response”. From the tourism point of view, now that the tour operators are tied up and “we expect to see results”.Another sector that the state government is leveraging is agriculture and it wants to promote fruits and vegetables which have demand in Bangladesh. While admitting that there is absence of laboratories at certain exit points, Sangma said the state government will act as an anchor to make things happen.
“Then the state and the central governments and the stakeholders will revolve around the anchor… It is a process comprising short, middle and long terms,” he said and added that sectors like agriculture, horticulture, food processing, mining, power and tourism have great hope.
The government is keeping in mind certain points like infrastructure development, trust and policy and business interdependence.
“The value chain has to be identified and defined to allow continuity. That is the ultimate challenge and will also be the game changer,” Sangma said.