Cll IN NORTH EAST

In a very short span of time, CII has taken some bold initiatives to ensure speedy economic development of the North-Eastern region. 

North East News Agency

Cynics may term it as day dreaming. Conservatives may adopt the wait and watch policy. But those who believe in the huge potential of the North-Eastern region will definitely stand behind the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in its endeavour to bring the region at par with other mainland states in terms of development and economic activities.

Compassionate, innovative and initiatory that is CII for North-East. In a very short span of time, CII has taken some bold initiatives. For example, who has ever thought that the region can export musicians to mainland? CII has made that possible. Couples of Naga musicians are now earning their livelihood in other parts of the country, courtesy CII.

“We are not bothered about adverse comments. These are normal. We are in the North-East because we sincerely believe that the region has potential, talents to match with the best of the world. Backwardness is not the true reflection of the region’s promise. We will try our best to present a better future to the North-East. Whether we succeeded or not that only time can tell,” said S. Sen, Deputy Director General of CII.

CII has already opened three offices in the North-East. These offices are located in Guwahati, Kohima and Agartala. Very soon CII will open another office in Mizoram. To pursue the goal, CII stresses on working with the State Governments in policy formulation for industrial development, employment generation, training in IT, automobile, healthcare, marketing of handloom, handicrafts, etc.

So far, CII has taken up many initives in states like Assam, Nagaland and Tripura. CII has set up a computer centre for the underprivilaged youth with the belief that this would help the underpriviledged youth of Nagaland to get a feel of computer education and strengthen their knowledge in the area of IT. Already around 100 persons have utilised the facilities at the centre.

In accordance with its policy CII had arranged a conclave with the Governors and Chief Ministers of North-Eastern states. It has formed Cll Nagaland and Assam State Council and Cll Assam State Council. It started CII-OTS Computer Centre for the Underprivileged Youth in Dimapur. It released a Product Catalogue on Handloom & Handicraft of the North East. CII organized a training programme on packaging for exports in Kohima. To top the list CII organized Buyer-Seller Meet of Handloom & Handicraft Products of the North East in Bangalore. Similar show will take place in Mumbai in April.

CII is also organizing North East Agri Expo, 2006 from March 27 in Dimapur. Nearly 50 top business houses of the country will participate in the expo along with some foreign countries. Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Union Minister Subodh Kant Sahay, Chief Ministers of the North-Eastern states will be present at the expo. The expo will have Government-investor conclave on development of agribusiness in North-East. There will be separate sessions on horticulture, livestock, poultry, fisheries and plenary session on food processing industry and on financing agribusiness in the region. CII will also provide the opportunity for one to one discussion.

Talking about the ambitious plan of CII, Indrani Kar, Senior Director and Head – Agriculture and Food Processing claims that the meet will be a huge success. “This is for the first time that so many potential investors are going to North-East. It goes to the credit of CII that it has managed to convince top business houses of the country about the potential of the region and this is no mean achievement,” she claims. On being asked how North-East is going to be benefited from this expo, she clarified that CII has provided a platform and ensured the presence of top investors, State Governments and the local farmers. Claiming that this has not been done before, Ms. Kar appears confident that the efforts put by CII will not go waste.

Plans and strategies for economic development are not new for North-East, though very few had achieved desired results. But CII strategy is different. Unlike previous efforts, CII has not ignored the ground realities. With an ear to the ground, CII is constantly updating, modifying its plans for the region. For example, knowing fully well that other states will always attract more investments than the North-East, CII has put stress on creating local entrepreneurs providing them training and arranging bank loans for their projects. CII has already published a book to help the upcoming entrepreneurs to get bank loans. Apart from this, it has also kept its door open for the entrepreneurs for assistance.

R. Vaithiyanathan, Deputy Director, CII, agrees that the infrastructural bottlenecks are still there.  But, one can see the developments taking place in the region. For example, couple of years back, if one had to travel to Dimapur, needed to spend two days to reach there.  But, now, with the connecting flights and luxury coaches, travel has become easy. He is confident that more changes will come. At this present juncture, one can only hope that the optimism expressed by CII will transform in to reality very soon.

CII focused on the development of economy and industry in the North East. With its offices in Agartala, Guwahati and Kohima, Cll has been endeavouring to carry out activities of benefit to the North East. In the year 2003 - 2004, the Cll initiatives for overall development of the North East were:

Cll organised the CEOs Conclave with the Governors and Chief Ministers of the North Eastern states at Gangtok, Sikkim on 10 September 2003. The Conclave gave ample opportunity to the industrialists from both within and outside the North East to interact with the dignitaries from the region. The main objectives of the meet were threefold; to realise the potential of the North Eastern region; to understand the expectations of the leaders of the region from CII and to highlight the success stories from the region.

To promote industries in Nagaland and to address financial issues and problems, Cll organised a Seminar on “Financing of Industry in Nagaland” on 23rd October 2003 at Dimapur.

To help build competitiveness in the State run schools to adapt themselves to the changing needs, Cll in association with the Government of Assam organised a two-day awareness workshop on Quality in Education in Guwahati on 25-26 May 2003. This    followed by another two-day seminar on Infusion of Quality in Education -A must to develop competitiveness in Guwahati on 10-11 November 2003.

North East, due to its location, hosts a large number of Military and Para-military forces in the region. These military establishments procure various general store and low-technology items and they can generate several business opportunities for the small and medium scale industries in the region. To explore the possibilities for business development for the SMEs in the region, Cll had organised a Buyer Seller Meet of Small Scale Industry in Shillong, Meghalaya on 12th June 2003.

To help the SMEs to facilitate the growth by focusing on the revival of manufacturing,   Cll organised a Conference on Building Competitiveness for SSIs/SMEs in Guwahati on 30th December 2003, with active support from SIDBI, NSIC, SBI and NEDFi. Subsequently, towards end of the year, Cll organised a focused session on leadership and branding for the SMEs in the region in Guwahati.

To sensitise the small scale industries about the important of packaging in trade, Cll in association with the Small Industries Service Institute and Indian Institute of Packaging organised a training programme on Packaging in Kohima on 27th - 28th January 2004.

To promote the handlooms and handicrafts in the region, Cll in co-operation with SIDBI published a product Catalogue on handloom and handicrafts of the North Eastern states. The catalogue showcased 27 exclusive products from the whole North East region.

Employment generation is another area of work for CII in the region. With a view to create more self-employment opportunities in the State of Nagaland, Cll organised two Training Programmes on Automobiles and Refrigeration for the underprivileged youth in the State, in partnership with Hindustan Motors Limited and Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited in Kolkata from 22 - 27 May 2003.

Also, to help the youth of North East to get trained in computers at free of cost, Cll sponsored a Computer Centre in Dimapur (Nagaland) for the Underprivileged Youth of the State. This was done in co-operation with the Oriental Theological Seminary.

CII with the active support of Godrej Industries Limited, Oil India Limited, State Bank of India and Tata Steel had distributed school uniforms for the underprivileged school children in Assam attending primary schools under the Sarba Shiksha Abhijan Programme.

To promote exports of various products and services offered by the region such as Handloom, handicraft, agriculture, Food processing, healthcare, infotech training and education, industrial engineering and construction products etc, - a large number of manufacturing units from the North East participated in the Made in India Show organised by Cll in Yangon, Myanmar. A team of delegation from the North East comprising twenty-five members was taken with the motive of building linkage with both industry and government of Myanmar in the form of exports, imports, joint ventures, etc.

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