By IANS
Guwahati : Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh said here Friday that security concerns and inadequate infrastructure were major deterrents for private investors to set up business in the northeast.
“Security is the single most important issue for investors, besides poor infrastructure facilities in the northeast. The central government’s approach to infrastructure development in the northeast has not been proactive and bold,” the minister told journalists here.
Ramesh was on a visit to Guwahati to work out a business deal with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT company, to invest in Assam.
“Any investor would like to have a safe security environment and should not be bothered about bomb blasts and other such things. This is the general perception that many investors have about the northeast, although not all the states are affected by insurgency,” the minister said.
“We need more airports in the northeast, besides better telecommunication networks, including telephones, mobile services, and broadband connectivity, to attract private investors, besides an improved security environment.”
The TCS chief executive officer S. Ramadurai who was in Guwahati held a daylong interactive session with Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to explore possibilities of expanding the company’s network in the state.
“We want the TCS to set up an IT application and software development centre and a bio-technology institute in Guwahati. We hope in the next few weeks the TCS would come up with a concrete proposal for investments in Assam,” Ramesh said.
The minister said Guwahati has the potential to become the IT hub for TCS’s operations in the whole of southeast Asia.
“The TCS could look at Guwahati as a pivot to all their activities in southeast Asia. We want Guwahati and Shillong to come in the IT map of India as these two cities have the infrastructure and potential,” Ramesh said.
The minister said the central government has taken an ambitious project for improving the region’s communication network.
“As of today, there are just 11,500 broadband connections in the northeast and by the end of end of 2008 there are plans to have 100,000 such connections. Moreover, massive expansion of telephone and mobile networks is being planned in the region,” Ramesh said.