NE Will Emerge As Role Model In COVID Management: Union Minister

Union minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said the northeast will lead the country"s post-Covid growth story and the region is fast emerging as a role model in many spheres, including coronavirus management.

Addressing a seminar titled "The Land of Emerging Opportunities, focus area Manipur", organised by the ASSOCHAM and the Manipur government, Singh also said in the post-Covid times, when everyone will be engaged in building up the country"s economy, there will be a tendency to look for unexplored areas for generating business and revenue, and the northeast would be seen as a perfect destination.

"The northeast will lead post-COVID India"s growth story and the region is fast emerging as a role model in many spheres, including Covid management," he said.

Singh, the Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), said the kind of transformation that took place in the northeast in the last seven years in all spheres of life under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is both incredible and unprecedented.

He said there have been constant efforts by the Centre to help businesses and entrepreneurs, significant steps have already been taken in this direction and reforms are underway in areas such as investment in agriculture, hydel-power, infrastructure, information and communication technology, tourism as well as in creating new avenues of growth through the development of vertically-integrated food processing chains, marketing of skill development and cross-border trade.

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Singh said the Centre is giving a special impetus to entrepreneurship in the northeast and bottlenecks such as power, road, infrastructure, connectivity are fast diminishing.

He said the government has prioritised projects of power generation and distribution so that there is availability of quality power to help businesses to grow, adding that this will positively impact the overall economic development of the region.

Singh said the northeast"s infrastructure growth, supported by the Centre and international agencies, is the finest example of people, partnerships and projects, and the creation of special economic zones (SEZs) is key towards providing opportunities to business and people.

Singh said Manipur"s strength lies in its people and natural resources and expressed the hope that the state will emerge as a leading information technology (IT) hub of the country.

He appealed to business leaders to come forward to strengthen the economic landscape of the state and the region.

Singh said the IT-SEZ in Manipur will boost the state"s economy, promote tourism and most importantly, create employment opportunities both direct and indirect.

It will also boost infrastructure development with units like a hotel, a hospital and a residential complex, he added.

Singh also laid stress on the time-bound completion of the ongoing projects related to roads, highways, water, airways and power generation, and called for building the required infrastructure right up to the border areas, establishing connectivity and communication links to cross-border points to promote trade and economic exchanges. PTI

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