Shillong Aug 16: A two-day seminar ‘Shillong Dialogue’ India and Sub Himalayan Eastern Neighbours: Shared Borders, Shared Opportunities: “Transforming Geo Spaces to Celebrating Ideas, Skills, People,†began here on Thursday.
Speaking at the inaugural session, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma highlighted the need for improved connectivity with the neighbouring countries for transformative growth of the region.
“Most of the North Eastern States share their borders with the neighbouring countries and therein lies a huge opportunity for developing trade and economic growth which will be mutually beneficial to the region, our country as well as the neighbouring countries†the Chief Minister said.
Stating that tourism a sector with immense potential for employment generation and economic growth, the Chief Minister stressed the need to develop infrastructure and facilities to improve tourist flow to the region.
Conrad also pushed for more cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors.
Terming digital connectivity an enabling factor for transforming the region, he said, “Digital connectivity will lead to faster and more efficient market linkages.â€
The seminar was organized at Asian Confluence here to discuss the emerging insights from an ongoing study being conducted by the Asian Confluence in collaboration with the Asia Foundation which focuses on ways and means to connect the Border States and regions through interconnectedness of goods, services and people.
The study has identified three main pillars on which further discussions could be explored. They are Tourism, creation of Agri-horti value chains and enabling of sub-regional Trade-Tourism-Transit hubs. The roundtable hopes to share initial insights and ideas on these three pillars so as to invite inputs, critique and suggestions through discussions to come up with time-bound action agenda for each pillar and prioritize them based on opportunities, challenges and concerns as identified through discussions and deliberations on actionable for each pillar.
