IMPHAL, Nov 21: Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Tuesday called upon the investors of India and abroad to invest in the region, particularly in Arunachal Pradesh in hydropower, social infrastructure, agro processing, large scale farming, R&D and other sectors.
The Chief Minister was addressing over 170 corporate leaders from India and abroad on the first day of the two-day North East Development Summit being held at the Convention Centre in Imphal.
“Tell us what you need from us by way of policy and I assure you we will get it done,” said Pema.
Stating that today’s North East region is much different from what was heard about two-three decades ago, Pema said, “For those in the mainland, the North East is associated with ethnic conflict and insurgency.
However, in the last one decade, much has changed in this region and an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity has laid conducive conditions for economic development of the region,” Pema added.
Pema observed that the “Nehruvian Policy of Panchsheel in real terms has became a barrier for economic development.”
The decades of 80s and the 90s saw tremendous development in rest of the country, but sadly for the people of North East, these were “decades of opportunity lost,” he opined.
He also urged that since North East is the pivot of the Act East Policy and its biggest beneficiary, the region must be made central to the policy planning and not a marginal transit stop over.
On operationalization of the Stilwell road, the Chief Minister said that the people of Arunachal want it to open sooner or later.
“I would recommend at this platform that an institutional structure of all chief ministers of this region be created along with Union External Affairs Minister, Defence Minister, Commerce Minister and Home Minister to actively discuss our perspective of the Act East Policy,” he said.
