KOHIMA, JULY 31 (MExN): As the two days 7th NEC Sectoral Summit on IT and IT Enabled Services and Telecommunications got underway today at the New Assembly Complex Conference Hall, Minister for DONER Mani Shankar Aiyar, in a bid to woo IT investors to NE, urged representatives of IT companies to take advantage of the close proximity of the region to South East Asian countries.
Aiyar said that serious efforts have been on to break the ‘prison wall’ of NE, and to establish proper link with the rest of the country and the main channel will be through IT and allied sector.
He also said that Malaysia and Thailand have expressed keen interest to invest in the region.
“India is working to maintain normal relationship with rest of the South East Asian country, but still serious political and security issue remains a problem”, the Minister said, and stated that it has to be resolved by the parties involved.
He also informed that efforts to convert agriculture economy to that of knowledge-based economy, and development of IT and human skills will need a special thrust. He added that the availability of IT skills in the region will be an important element for attracting IT investors to the region.
Unfortunately, although efforts have been made for development of the region, the much hype ‘Look East Policy’ has not gone beyond Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
“Tamil Nadu and Karnataka has benefited from this policy, but not the North East”, Aiyar said.
The Minister underscored two areas, transport and security, on which investors always express apprehension as major hindrances for investment. However, in a bid to allay doubt, he assured the participants that air connectivity between the NE and mainland India will be improved in few next years.
Also to assuage fear amongst the investors, the Minister made state-wise analysis of the security scenario of the region. He said states like Sikkim, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura are safer than other Indian metropolitan cities like Delhi, and while Manipur is of little concern, on Nagaland state, Aiyar said, ‘outsiders need not fear because if even there is news of violence Nagas only turn against each other and not on others.’
“Security and infrastructure should not bog you. IT and Telecommunications has very important role to play here”, Aiyar added.
Besides, the representatives of DONER, NEC and eight NE states, Telecom and IT companies like NASSCOM, CISCO, BSNL, Reliance, Airtel, Wipro, etc are participating in the Summit.
Meanwhile, Nagaland is reposing hope on this sectoral summit that it will help the North East region to move in the desired direction. Nagaland Governor, K Sankaranarayanan fervently highlighted the plight of the region today at the inaugural session.
Making a frequent comparison between his state Kerala and the Nagaland, Sankaranrayanan said that North East region is undergoing a typical problem, and said that ‘one-size-fits all approach’ will not do in this region.
Chief Minister Rio, who also spoke said that all the earlier summits were a grand success in terms of participation by the Indian industries and other stake holders. However, his only concern is that these various Summits have not been able to result in corresponding increase in the flow of funds and faster implementation of many pending projects, vital for the development of the north east region.
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