The idea of having a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in a place like Nagaland seems unworkable going by the failure of the proposed SEZ set up at Ganeshnagar under Dhansiripar sub-division in Dimapur. The Government of Nagaland had big plans to rope in not only domestic, but foreign investors in the agro and food processing sector. Spread over 125 acres of land, the government proposed to convert the existing Export Promotion Industrial Park (EPPI) into a SEZ to be promoted by the Nagaland Industrial Development Corporation (NIDC). The first in the north east, the SEZ was set up exclusively for the agro and food processing sector. The arrangement was to absorb surplus agricultural products through value addition. Pineapples, passion fruits, bamboo shoot, medicinal plants and aromatic herbs, including lemon grass and Aloe Vera, were some of the products being considered for the proposal. Launched with much hype, the present NPF government even signed up a MoU with a Korean firm CONA but this has remained nothing more than a useless paper exercise as the arrangement with the Korean firm has not worked out so far. Now the question remains as to why the countless number of MoUs signed by the Nagaland government with different parties for various development projects has never really worked out. One can recall a MoU signed with the ITC for Naga King Chilly and other spices. Before that another MoU was signed with an Israeli firm by one of the government department. Many more such MoUs have been signed but obviously there has been no substance or follow through just a lot of style and hoopla.
Our government must be able to do a realistic appraisal of the local context before actually signing along the dotted line. Let us not fool ourselves into believing that everything is normal and workable in Nagaland. Why do you think development projects such as the SEZ at Ganeshnagar has failed to take off? What ails our State when it comes to industry, investment, economic growth? There appears to be no one reason alone to explain our poor performance on this front. One explanation is the infrastructure bottleneck—poor condition of power, road & communication. Further market linkage, postharvest technology etc has not developed. And obviously this stems from the corruption within the government system. Corruption and the working of our government system is therefore another impediment that we face. The other underlying issue pointed out by many people is the “law and order” problem prevailing in the State. Concerns have been raised about security. Big players from outside the State are unwilling to invest because of the ‘disturbance’. So the unresolved Naga political issue is also one of the uncertainties, which is not helping the overall situation. We will have to understand that for investment to happen, which in turn will lead to creation of jobs, a positive ‘sentiment’ is of outmost importance. People want to be assured of proper infrastructure, law & order, responsive government, strong and reliable institutions and long term guarantee for security. Our present Naga situation does not merit these preconditions nor does it boost confidence.
