Commissioner Secretary to the Government of Nagaland KD Vizo ITS addressing the North East Business Summit at Le Meridian Hotel, New Delhi on January 17.
New Delhi, January 21 (MExN): The Commissioner Secretary for IT & Power, Government of Nagaland, KD Vizo ITS, said it is high time that world class companies should start coming to North Eastern Region and in the process they must ensure that local youths are gainfully employed. He was speaking as one of the speakers at the North East Business Summit organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on January 17 and 18 at Le Meridian Hotel, New Delhi.
While stating that Nagaland is slowly emerging as a leader in IT sector in North eastern region the Commissioner Secretary pointed out that even as Indian companies are reluctant to provide domestic business process to the largest BPO operated in the region by the Department of IT&C (in collaboration with private companies), the foreign countries are willing to outsource their business process to Nagaland and it is high time that Indian companies should start looking east and acting east.
He asserted that the banking sector in North Eastern region needs a very quick reformation and the traditional system of giving loan to people in north eastern region at very high interest rate should be done away with at the earliest. He further mentioned that so far various banks in North Eastern Region are restricting giving loans to only government employees which encourages only government services. Since Government services are now getting almost saturated he pointed out that the banking institutions have to now support privatization and extend loan facilities to entrepreneurs and general citizens particularly the farmers. Mentioning various distinct advantages of north-eastern region he said that the region has very high literacy rate with very good English speaking standard suitable for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) and other international based business. He also mentioned that unemployment is now a big problem in North Eastern Region and he urged the multinational companies to engage the large pool of unemployed well educated youth and skilled manpower of North Eastern region in IT sector in a very big way.
On policy matters, Vizo mentioned that there is a need to frame policies to create enabling environments for domestic and export market of North Eastern region. A decision making agencies both at the State and Central Government level need to identify potential areas for future investment and product development based on the distinctive comparative advantage of North Eastern Region. While mentioning that in the era of Knowledge Economy, the North Eastern Region has all the potentials of becoming the most prosperous region in India, he also underlined the fact that there is a need to enhance economic capacity of the region through appropriate policy framework with an eye on the ASEAN and BBIN markets. On the scope of international trade he had pointed out that North Eastern Region has large international borders and it can serve as entry point for the South-East Asian markets and for that he had specifically mentioned that Look East or Act East policy of Government of India requires easing of restriction on border trade especially with Myanmar and the aim should be to really go east ward to ASEAN markets.
K D Vizo attended the event as one of the speakers besides chairing a technical session on "Entrepreneurship Development in North East with focus on banking & financial Inclusion, IT & ITES”. The other two technical sessions of the summit - “Promotion of infrastructure and Connectivity in North East” was chaired by Ram Muivah, IAS, Secretary NEC, while the session on Tourism was chaired by Satyajeet Rajan, IAS, Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, a press release informed.
The summit was organized with the aim to explore the scope for business opportunities in the North-Eastern states of India, elaborately discussed issues relating to promotion of business in North Eastern region.
