Thai trade group visit to Tripura on the cards

Agartala, June 1 (UNI) Tripura will pull out all the stops to impress a business delegation from Thailand, scheduled to visit the state later this month.

Official sources here today said the industry department was assigned to identify prospective areas of foreign investment, including cane and handicraft sectors, as well as prepare frontline demonstration of some successful projects.

The department has already identified a group of artisans who will make on the spot demonstrations before the delegation as well as explain the export potential of the state in a bigger way, officials stated.

The four-member delegation, led by the Thailand Commerce minister, is scheduled to start visiting north eastern states from June 22 to explore the possibility of importing bamboo products from the region.

A week-long visit to the region will start from Tripura while the delegation would meet the trade group and commerce department officials of Mizoram here, the sources said.

The team will leave for Kohima and meet Manipur representatives there while they will hold meeting with Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya officials in Guwahati afterwards.

Both Thailand and Bhutan had earlier expressed their interest to import bamboo products from the north-east following their growing demand, said officials adding, Thailand was interested in investing in Tripura and Mizoram because of their geographical location and availability of resources.

''Kaldan Multi-Nodal Transport project with a fund allocation of Rs 745.9 crore, envisages linking the region with Sittwe port in Myanmar, providing a much-needed access by sea, which will benefit both Tripura and Mizoram,'' the officials said.

Triangular Road project to link Mizoram with east and north Myanmar, connecting Rih village on Mizoram-Myanmar border with Falam and Tiddim will facilitate Thailand to set up business association with the states.

UNI