Assam presents itself as India’s Expressway to ASEAN

Sarbananda Sonowal unveiled the website of ‘Advantage Assam’ at the event

The strategic location of Assam in proximity of the growing ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) economies provides easy access to a market of over 800 million consumers. All major ASEAN cities are located geographically closer to Assam as compared to other states in India.

Thus, to attract investment in the state, Sarbananda Sonowal, Chief Minister of Assam, announced ‘Advantage Assam – Global Investors Summit’ – an investment promotion and facilitation initiative by the Government of Assam.

The summit will be organised in association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on February 3-4, 2018, in Guwahati.
The event will showcase investment opportunities and highlight the geo-strategic advantages offered to investors by Assam. The state is emerging as an ideal destination for investments capable of catering to not only the North East and the rest of India but also to serve as the manufacturing and services hub for the ASEAN region, one of the world’s fastest growing region with an economy of over USD 3 trillion.

One of the objectives of the curtain raiser was to project the opportunities in the state, and to set the ball rolling for a series of roadshows, seminars and other activities leading up to the summit.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called to transform North East of India as ‘New Engine’ of growth for the country. Where people have been terming Assam as the land of problems, difficulties, and of extremism, Assam is now the land of potential, possibilities and prosperity. Invest in Assam; we assure a safe and secure environment will be provided to them to facilitate their endeavors,” said Sarbananda Sonowal, Chief Minister of Assam.

The government of Assam has been making constant efforts to enhance investments in the state, and the cabinet recently approved six sectorial policies and a procurement policy, in areas of IT and Electronics, Start-ups, Bio-technology, sugar, tourism, and handloom and textiles, to attract investment and help harness the resources available in the state.

Amongst the policies approved are the Assam Start-up Policy, Information Technology Policy, Handloom Policy, and Sugar Policy, which are expected to boost existing entities and attract more industries to the region.

“Government of Assam has identified river transport and port townships; power; plastic and petrochemicals; agriculture and food processing; pharmaceuticals; IT and ITeS; tourism; and silks, as the focus sectors for investments in the state. We are also addressing the issue of connectivity through enhanced airways, roadways, waterways, railways and internet connectivity in the state, and are keen to develop Assam as the regional aviation hub. We are looking at ways to establish direct air connectivity with neighboring countries where flying time is between 1.5 to 2 hours,” Ravi Capoor, Additional Chief Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Government of Assam, said that the event.

Additionally, Assam aims at skilling more than one million youth in the next five years and highlighting the vast talent pool and educational eco-system.
“We are setting up an incubation centre, which will be launch in next two months. We have a talented pool of human resource, which has unfortunately moved away from the state but we want to pull them back,” added Capoor.