Al Ngullie
Dimapur | August 9
It is confirmed: The Government of Nagaland has dispatched an ‘exploratory’ panel to Australia to study feasible market models for a multi-crore trading center to be set up in the state’s business heart, Dimapur. The state government’s team to Australia, it is confirmed, was led by Nagaland’s Minister for Agriculture Dr. Chumben Murry. Two high officials, understood to be senior chiefs of the department of Agriculture or any of the allied departments, accompanied the minister on the trip Down Under in the past one week.
Highly-reliable sources in the government today disclosed that a multi-crore trading centre has been in the planning and the objective is to make it a trade and commerce conduit not only for the state or even NE for that matter, but catering to national trade as well. The trading center planned for Dimapur, according to the source, is no ‘peanuts,’ for the reason that it could well run into a bank-numbing “Rs. 100 crore,” the highly-placed source claimed.
Interestingly, the source said the ‘vision’ for the Dimapur trade center has been in the planning of the state government for an unspecified but considerable time now.
Following this development, The Morung Express contacted and interacted with Minister Dr. Chumben Murry who confirmed of the trip to Australia and the objective in setting up a trade center in Dimapur. Dr. Murry will be on his return to the state in a few days time.
The Agriculture minister said he was in Sydney with the team the past two days studying market and marketing models of the international metropolis. The idea was to replicate a feasible market system for Dimapur’s trading centre, he said. The center, Dr. Murry called it the ‘Dimapur Terminal Market Hub.’ During their Sydney visit, the team visited the city’s marketing systems dealing in marine trade (fish and seafood), meat and commercial operations of horticulture, among others.
Dr. Murry expressed high appreciation for the highly-regulated and streamlined market systems of Australia’s local economy. The minister explained that the study was necessitated to contextualize the model Dimapur’s Terminal Market Hub’s system would typify to respond effectively to business needs. The minister also disclosed that pre-assessment works are underway and a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the planned centre has been set in place.
The estimated financial outlay of setting up Dimapur Terminal Market Hub could not be made available by the agriculture minister, confessedly owing to his lack of updated information of the project’s financial status report. Nonetheless, Dr. Chumben Murry left a guess point or two with his response: “It could be about Rs. 1 crore or just under Rs. 100 crore.”
One of the highly-refined, highly-regulated business systems in the world, Australia’s local economic organization has translated its estimated AU $216 billion export in 2007 into a “nominal” GDP of a staggering $889 billion. Australia is currently listed as the world's 14th largest economy. In fact, the GDP fed by the services sector – the single biggest sector – was so huge, that the country held up a colossal AU $228 billion of goods and services in imports alone.
