19 Southeast Asian groups keen to invest in Tripura

Agartala, Sep 18 (UNI) As many as 19 groups from different South East Asian countries have expressed interest to invest in Tripura and the state government has assured to extend full support, including logistics for infrastructure development.

Tripura Industry Minister Jitendra Choudhury said here today that he had held meetings with the trade bodies of Bangladesh, Thailand and Czech Republic during the fourth Northeast Business Summit in Guwahati early this week and called for intensive Public Private Partnership (PPP) to facilitate massive investments in different sectors for economic growth in Northeastern region.

He informed that the Czech Republic would send a delegation of businessmen and bankers to NE states next month for interaction with policy makers and entrepreneurs of the region to explore mutually beneficial business tie-ups.

Besides South East Asian nations, two separate delegations from the UAE and Italy had already visited Tripura and held meetings with Chief Minister Manik Sarkar while the Tech Mate group of Ajam in the UAE had proposed to invest in healthcare, urban amenities, education and Information Technology sectors, Mr Choudhury said.

According to the proposal, Tech Mate would invest over Rs twenty billion for setting up an international medical city, knowledge city and global village in Tripura targeting the market of neighbouring Bangladesh.

Stating the summit to be successful, he said as many as 12 High Commissioners/Ambassadors of Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Arab countries, Bhutan and Czech Republic and investors attended the summit, which resolved to take initiative on the part of the Centre to convert diplomatic initiatives into commercial opportunities for the overall development of the north eastern region.

Mr Choudhury also underlined that the North East Industrial Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP) 2007, which provided liberal concessions and subsidies, had apparently attracted the international investors and about 68 investment proposals worth USD 1.5 billion had been received under this policy cover.

The private sector would recognise the immense potential for doing business in Northeast and would play a more active role in the times ahead, dispelling fears that the region was not a safe place for doing business.

He claimed that four states of the North East were totally safe and therefore investor friendly.

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