1st North East Summit on Developing Northeast through the Power of Entrepreneurship underway
Morung Express News
Dimapur | December 20
Nagaland chief minister, Neiphiu Rio, announced that Nagaland Government will devise means for a ‘New land record and land use’ policy and revise the ‘Power Policy’ to look into the constraints of investment in the state and to facilitate investment in the hydro power sector.
And for this the government had recently set up the Investment & Development Authority of Nagaland (IDAN) to help set all these in motion, the chief minister said in his address at the inaugural session of the 1st North East Summit on “Developing Northeast through the power of Entrepreneurship’ held at Niathu Resort on Thursday.
Rio also informed that the government is in the process of drawing up a new industrial policy to help promote micro and small enterprises with special focus on startups that will include the agriculture sector.
He said the new industrial policy will focus on empowering the local entrepreneurs along with establishing manufacturing hubs and economic zones.
Rio said NE India has tremendous natural resources, varied geography with temperate and conducive climatic conditions and inhabited by people who are generally healthy, dynamic, and hardworking with a large pool of educated and enterprising youth.
He said the NE is also placed at a very advantageous location in terms of foreign trade and commerce, sharing almost 90% of its borders with foreign countries and further having connections with South East Asia, both economic and cultural.
However, the Region remained underdeveloped and not able to realize its full potentials due to a number of factors including poor road, rail and air connectivity and insurgency movements by varied ethnic groups that seemed to tear away the region from the rest of the country, he said.
But today the scenario is changing dramatically and the turbulent past is fast becoming a matter of the past with “democratic negotiation taking the place of gunfire and the possibilities of peace looming, especially the settlement of the longstanding Naga political problem”, the chief minister said.
Rio said the main thrust in the Naga political negotiations is the integration of Naga areas, spread in four NE states and across the border in Myanmar.
He said with the Region becoming more peaceful and the nation more prosperous, the focus of the Government is on building infrastructure.
“But it is not only the physical infrastructure that is changing. The mindset is also changing. India is defining and redefining the ‘Look East’ policy to ‘Act East’ policy and various other policies are further, underway to give new directions and visions to the people, especially the youth”, he said.
Rio said the youth are becoming more responsive to the changes and are beginning to think along new and pioneering lines.
“I feel that we are at a point of time - at a historical threshold - to bring about a revolutionary change provided we all act and think together and the magic to this will be Entrepreneurship”, he said.
For Entrepreneurship to really kick off in the region, the chief minister said government policy is not enough. “We have to create a situation to facilitate production and the supply chain linkages while encouraging innovative investments in multiple sectors including tourism, agriculture, IT, BPO, entertainment, education and, handloom and handicrafts.
“It is my dream that Nagaland should be both a producing state and also a centre of creativity and a hub or originality in ideas, innovation and unique products. I am optimistic that not very far into the future, the ingenuity of the creative Naga youth will emerge as a major strength with proper logistic and technical support”, Rio said.
‘UNDP willing to set up SDG coordination centre’
Deputy resident representative, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Nadia Rasheed, in her special address said despite challenges, including natural disasters and difficult connectivity, the North East has managed to significantly outperform expectations such as having the highest number of literate youth hailing from rural areas.
Rasheed said for UNDP, the key focus is supporting national and state partners to advance the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and localize the SDGs in line with local priorities and aspirations.
She said UNDP would be proud to partner with Nagaland to set up a SDG Coordination Centre, such as the one in Haryana, to propel integration of social and environmental standards within local economic agendas, assist in effectively reducing disparities, foster social cohesion from the bottom up, generate local business opportunities and jobs, promote entrepreneurship, and very importantly, bring women and excluded groups into productive employment.
Director, IIFT & honorary advisor, IDAN, Dr. Manoj Pant, gave an overview of the theme of the summit and director general, ICSI, Dr. Gulshan Sharma, gave a power point presentation on “The way forward.”
Earlier, CEO, IDAN, Alemtemshi Jamir, delivered the welcome address.
The inaugural session also witnessed distribution of certificates to entrepreneurs who successfully completed the ‘Empretech Primer’ workshop and release of the theme paper.
