* Registered delegates : 5,300
* Foreign participants : 700
BY OUR STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI, Jan 31: The stage is now all set for the biggest trade summit in this corner of the country. Billed as the largest such initiative for promoting trade and investment in Assam, Dispur is now leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the mega even is a grand success. Altogether 5,300 delegates have registered for the mega event. Of them, about 700 are delegates from foreign countries.
And with barely over 48 hours to go, the State Government is racing against time to ensure that the city is spruced up with lights and colours before the two-day summit takes off on Saturday amid much fanfare.
All the premium hotels of the city have already been booked for some of the top business tycoons who are scheduled to attend the summit along with high-level delegation from various countries, including ASEAN tions. A fleet of luxury cars have also been hired to ferry the delegates to the venue – Indira Gandhi Sports Complex, Sarusajai – from the airport and hotels.
Prime Minister rendra Modi is set to iugurate the two-day Advantage Assam: Global Investors Summit, 2018, which is being hosted by the Government of Assam in partnership with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), country’s largest and oldest business organisation.
Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay will also attend the iugural event and is scheduled to reach the city on Thursday.
Besides Modi, several Union ministers, including Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Commerce & Industries Suresh Prabhu, Minister for Electronics & Information Technology, Law & Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Textiles and Information & Broadcasting Smriti Zubin Irani, Minister for Petroleum & tural Gas and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region Jitendra Singh and Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, are expected to take part in the proceedings.
The Government has identified 12 focus sectors for the summit – Agriculture & Food Processing, including Organic Cultivation & Bamboo, Handloom, Textile & Handicrafts, Logistics, River Transport & Port Township, IT & ITeS, Pharmaceutical & Medical Equipment, Plastics & Petrochemicals, Power, Tourism, Hospitality & Wellness, Civil Aviation, Petroleum & tural Gas, and Start-ups & Innovation.
There will be an exhibition hangar where 25 stalls will be put up. The exhibition will have two hangers each displaying the core strengths of Assam to potential investors. In total, it will comprise of 25 different thematic pavilions spread across an area 4,400 sq metres.
Billed as the biggest ever investment promotion and facilitation initiative by the Government of Assam, the maiden Global Investors Summit, 2018 aims to project the State as India’s expressway to the South-East Asian tions. The summit will showcase the opportunities offered by the State in terms of export-oriented manufacturing and services to Association of South East Asian tions (ASEAN) and BBN (Bangladesh, Bhutan Nepal) countries.
And to strengthen its case, the State government has already instituted some very attractive sectoral policies apart from the Industrial Policy. The sectoral policies include the Assam Start-up Policy, 2017; Information Technology & Electronics Policy, 2017; Handloom Policy, 2017-18; Sugar Policy, 2018; Biotechnology Policy, 2018; Tourism Policy, 2017; Solar Policy, 2018; and scheme of reimbursement of tax paid under the Assam Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 by eligible unit located in the State.
Improvement in the ease of doing business parameters has also been quite impressive, even as Dispur has also recently announced a 160-km Industrial Zone near the State Capital, in addition to a substantial land bank across the length and breadth of Assam.
Another major announcement was that of a 65-storeyed World Trade Centre in the city, which will become a key economic and business symbol for the State while being the centre of commerce and trade.