Germany keen to invest more in Northeast
A Correspondent
New Delhi: Germany on Friday expressed its interest in investing more in the northeastern States.
A six-member parliamentary delegation from Germany headed by Jurgen Hardt called on DoNER Minister Dr Jitendra Singh and expressed their interest in the Northeast.
Dr Singh appraised the delegation about the Central Government’s focus for the overall development of northeastern region including that of infrastructure. Dr Singh also wanted to know from the German delegation as to how Germany can help in commissioning developmental projects in the region.
He said that the Central Government is allocating 10 per cent of its resources, despite the region having 3 and half per cent population of the country and 7 per cent area. This signifies the priority being attached to the region, the Minister added.
Dr Singh said that in the last two years, major steps were taken for air connectivity and for the rapid development of inland waterways in the region. There are 20 inland waterways including the one at Brahmaputra for cheap and easy transportation of goods. He said that capital of Arunachal Pradesh Itanagar is now linked with New Delhi through rail and an airport at Itanagar will soon be completed.
The minister also briefed the delegation about international collaborative arrangements for the development of the Northeast and said that Japan is investing in a big way for the construction of roads and bridges. Israel is having a project on citrus food parks.
Secretary DoNER Dr Inderjit Singh informed that India and Germany had a bilateral collaboration in the field of climate change and only in December 2019, a pilot project on the subject was concluded.