The Hindu Business Line : N-E woos Thai investors

Kolkata, Sept. 2 Taking the cue from Thai Commerce Minister Mr Krirk Krai Jirapaet’s recent call to usher in closer business ties between the North East and Thailand, the Department of North Eastern Region (DONER) under the Government of India has planned a massive four-day road show in Bangkok from October 1. Labelled the ‘North East Indian Investment Opportunities Week in Thailand’, the event will be preceded by a North East Investment Opportunity Day in New York on September 26 to put North East India on the world investment map.

The three areas of cooperation identified for discussions at the Bangkok meet are infrastructure development, (particularly roads and power), tourism, and agri-food processing and horticulture-based industries. As a first step, the air-linking of Bangkok with Guwahati and an increase in intra-regional flights is expected to figure prominently at the various sessions.

Talking to Business Line in Kolkata on the likely outcome of this enormous exercise, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, Union Minister of Doner, said the final draft of the 2020 Vision Document by an expert group of NIPFP was expected to be rea dy soon, and would be placed before the NEC Plenary session in New Delhi in November this year.

He said the Investment Week programme in Bangkok would be attended by all the eight chief ministers of NE states, plus two Union ministers (Mr Aiyar and Minister of State for Commerce Mr Jairam Ramesh) and members of industry associations, trade bodies and other stakeholders including Central agencies.

Investment potential

Describing Thailand as being closest geographically to the country’s north eastern region (he said a Cheng Mai-Imphal flight would take less time than Kolkata-Imphal), Mr Aiyar said recent discussions between the 30-member Thai business delegation led by Mr Jirapaet in Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya have opened up scope for further discussions to attract substantial Thai investments into the NE region, particularly in infrastructure and tourism.

He said large Thai companies like the CP Group (which already had a presence in southern India) were keen to bring their expertise to the NE region.

Describing the prospects in tourism as exciting, the Minister said it was necessary to move logically, as the NE region was mountainous, and one needed to identify the complementary spots for Thai tourists. He said “we also need to create places for tourists to stay, and for this development of both road infrastructure (in which the Thai have expertise) and air-connectivity — both intra-regional and with rest of India — was absolutely essential”.

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