From Defence Industrial Corridor to District Domestic Product, Assam Govt’s Mega Industry Push; Global Investors’ Summit Next year

The Assam government under the visionary leadership of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is walking the extra mile to enhance the ease of doing business as the state gears up to host the mega Global Investors Summit in February next year.

Informing this, Chief Secretary Ravi Kota said that the main focus is on 9 areas as Assam works on a war footing to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for Viksit Bharat by 2047.

The creation of sub-districts, as announced by CM Himanta Biswa Sarma during this week’s Deputy Commissioner’s conference, is set to be a game changer in the Assam growth story, Kota stated adding that decentralising administration will give the respective Deputy Commissioners of the districts the time and space to focus on things of higher importance like hydrocarbon economy, border trade and much more.

This in turn will lead to the creation of the District Domestic Product on the lines of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that can aid the state to develop a new methodology to make districts the fulcrum of Economic development.

Addressing the inaugural session of the ICC Guest of the Month on Ease of Doing Business, organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce North Eastern Regional Council in Guwahati, Chief Secretary Ravi Kota also informed that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has made a strong case for setting up of a defence corridor in the state.

With the Rs 27,000 crore semiconductor plant already coming up in Assam, the defence corridor project can be the perfect investment to pair things up as the defence corridor-semi conductor plant combination has enormous potential to give a massive boost to the MSME sector, Kota said.

Assam is also looking to cash in big on Bhutan’s Gelephu Mindfulness City project with the state government, with consent from the Centre, which is taking the initiative of setting up an Integrated Check Post at Daranga along the Bhutan border.

The Assam government also has big plans to beautify the entry point from Bhutan to India turning it into a tourist attraction.

Kota informed that Bhutan has shown big interest in doing a lot of business with Bangladesh and all that trade has to happen through India, Assam in this case.

Plans are also afoot to boost waterways not only for Inland water Transport but also for external routes to Bangladesh and beyond, Kota informed.

The Chief Secretary further informed that Assam currently has 14 different incentive policies in place and aims to increase it by the time the Global investors summit is held in February 2025.