NEDFi and ITBF singed trade agreement to promote investment in NE

Agartala, Oct 19 (UNI) North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited(NEDFi) and India Thai Business Forum(ITBF) have signed an agreement to promote trade and investment between two countries.

The agreement was signed last week, following the North East Trade and Investment Opportunity Week in Bangkok early this month.

NEDFi officials here today said that NEDFi Chairman and Managing Director K N Hazarika and Chairman of ITBF Dato Satish Sehgal had signed the document in presence of Union Minister for DoNER and Panchayati Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar.

The Agreement proposed to pursue the exploration and facilitation of trade and investment opportunities for mutual benefit and setting up of dedicated facilitation desk(s) for the North-eastern states, sourcing market, investment, technology partners for their counterparts in both countries while announced to facilitation of visits and exchanges by businessmen, consultants, industry associations between the two countries.

Officials had also stated that NEDFi would pursue coordination and follow-up with respective governments for policy initiatives necessary to enable Thai-NE India business collaborations, joint ventures, organising meetings at least once in six months and holding of shows, fairs, seminars, business meets.

They hoped that the treaty would strengthen Thai-NE India business relationship and develop their economies by joint investments in each nation, as both the countries had agreed for collaboration in road construction, tourism and tourism infrastructure, food processing, agriculture and hydropower production.

Meanwhile, terming the agreement signed between NEDFi and ITBF, Industries and Commerce of Tripura Tapan Chakraborty said that India and Thailand were all set to go for free trade agreement (FTA), which would enable Northeastern States to increase trade and commerce with Thailand.

''We are hopeful that after FTA is introduced, there would be a lot of investment in the region from Thailand and many MoUs would be signed between different business groups,'' Mr Chakraborty added.

UNI