By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, June 14: The state government will invest Rs 5,000 crore in the Tourism sector in the next four years to generate around 50,000 jobs, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said on Friday.
He also said that the government will invest around Rs 1,500 crore in the IT sector that will generate employment opportunities for around 20,000 people.
“We will turn Shillong into an IT hub. The second IT Park is coming up in New Shillong,” he said while adding that the first IT Park is already providing employment to around 1,500 youth.
The government is also holding discussions to bring submarine cables all the way to Shillong for larger bandwidth and a state-of-the-art tier-3 data centre will be set up in Shillong, he said.
He was addressing the gathering during the convocation of ICFAI, where he urged the graduating students to take advantage of the investments of the government.
Sangma also said that it is high time the youth as well as the state take the advantage of the economic growth in the country.
He said that the economy of Meghalaya has increased from $4.8 billion to $6.6 billion in the last few years.
“We have tripled our economy. Our budgetary expenditure was around Rs 10,000 crore earlier but today we are almost touching Rs 30,000 crore, he said.
Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma said education makes a difference in the lives of people and a graduating day is a culmination of years of hard work.
The chief minister and other dignitaries presented the General Proficiency Awards, UG and PG Merit Certificates and also distributed awards to the Gold and Silver Medalists as ICFAI University held its annual convocation in which 608 degrees were conferred on PG and UG graduates.