NE can provide access to one fifth of world population

North-East India’s proximity to southeast Asian countries can provide foreign investors with an excellent opportunity of intra-regional trade and an access to nearly one-fifth of the world population, a new book says. “The North-East has the unique locational advantage of being a gateway to the fast-growing ASEAN countries and China. It has the potential to emerge as a strategic base for foreign and domestic investors to tap vast potential of contiguous markets of East and southeast Asian countries,” authors P L Sanjeev Reddy and P C Shekar Reddy write in “Peace and Development in Northeast: A Virtual Spiral”.

The book is the outcome of a multi-disciplinary study undertaken jointly by the Indian Institute of Public Administration and the North-Eastern Council.

The responses from police departments have brought out a very unique fact that over 71 per cent of the villages in the region have not reported any incidence of crime for the past couple of years, the writers say.

The people of the region expect greater transparency, accountability and monitoring in governance, strict control on corruption and freedom to determine the developmental priorities since they know the local needs better. The key to improving the quality of life of the people of the region lies in shifting the focus from charity to promoting creativity and fostering confidence and capacity building, the writers say.

The authors also rue that the “sensational news-driven” national media is prone to be negative towards the North-East — totally ignoring the positive aspects of the region. The book explores the socio-economic profile of the eight states and analyses reasons for villages being crime-free through statistical methods of analysis. “Since most of the crime in the region is insurgency-related, various factors that have led to militancy had to be highlighted, including the ‘foreign angle’ as well as complex solutions for their effective containment,” Sanjeev Reddy says.

The authors feel the government should think beyond allocating more resources and announcing tax holidays and subsidy packages for a solution to the problems in the northeast. “The administrative machinery has to be geared up and there should be greater degree of transparency.” Measures like more people-to-people contacts need to be taken to minimise the emotional divide. Industry activity should be geared up to local needs and which substantially utilises local manpower, talent and expertise. There is also a need to overhaul the education system, it suggests.

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