Meghalaya becoming the next IT and investment hub?

Companies are shifting their focus from Hyderabad and Bengaluru and are looking at investing in Meghalaya, CM Conrad Sangma said.

Is Meghalaya becoming the next IT and investment hub? Well, this is what Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma and his government is working towards and hoping to achieve.

Addressing a workshop on Human Development Leadership Programme in Tura, Chief Minister Sangma said, “The Shillong IT Park has provided jobs to more than 3000 youth directly and indirectly and many more companies have expressed their keen desire to setup BPOs in the state. Companies are now shifting their focus from cities like Bengaluru and Hyderabad to our state, as they know that we have the human resource and the capacity. Our people have good command over languages, and work ethics, which is an added advantage.”

The Chief Minister added that the administration is working on a strategy to assure economic development through increased investment in infrastructure projects.

“In the last five years, the government has charted out the road map. We are making investment in different social sectors with particular focus on education, health, power and rural development,” he said.

Talking about the investment prospects of the state, the CM said that Meghalaya is attracting an investment of Rs 8000 crore from the private sector of which about Rs 4000 crore has been invested in the last year, including a Rs 2500 crore thermal power plant to create 450 megawatts of energy, an ethanol plant, beverages, and a five-star hotel chain.

On boosting IT connectivity in the state, CM Sangma informed that government is engaging with Malaysian and Bangladesh telecom to lay submarine cable lines. “The optical fibre connection will further boost the IT enabled service sector”, he said.

The CM said that the growing interest of private sector to invest in the state is the outcome of the new industrial policy that has created an ecosystem for ease of doing business. “Earlier, the system was tedious and time consuming. Our new industrial policy has provided a framework to give clearance to different statutory requirement within a specified time frame, which is facilitating investors”.

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