Delhi hosts 4th NE Business Summit

New Delhi: Over 1,500 representatives of Indian trade and industry will participate at the fourth North-East Business Summit, which opens in New Delhi on Tuesday.

A number of international representatives, too, are expected to take part in the meet, where the chief ministers of the eight north-eastern states and the Union Ministry for North East Development will showcase the huge business potential and various incentive schemes on offer for investors in the region.

"The aim is to promote the investment opportunities in the region. The new North-East Industrial Policy has created huge opportunities for investors in the region in various fields like infrastructure, power, IT, handicrafts, tourism and healthcare. We expect to generate a lot of interest among the Indian as well as foreign investors towards the region," North East Development

Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar told a press conference in New Delhi on Monday.

The two-day summit will be inaugurated by Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on Tuesday morning.

The summit is being jointly organised by the Ministry of Development of North East Region and the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

"There will be international participants especially from Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh and a large delegation from Thailand will also be a part of the two-day conference," Aiyar said.

Aiyar said DONER is optimistic about the success of the event as the incentives on offer under the new NEIIPP are sure to draw the interest of business group and investors.

The Government is taking various initiatives to focus the North-East region as an investment hub and the recent one is the announcement of the North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP), 2007 which was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

Addressing the security-related issues in the region, Aiyar said: "We have to overcome this mental obstruction as in states like Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya; there is virtually no security problem and they are great investment destinations."