By IANS
Agartala : Germany will provide Rs.1.12 billion to India’s northeastern state of Tripura to help create forest resource based assets and value addition of forest produce, officials said here Saturday.
A four-member German government team led by mission director (technical) Hans Helmrich arrived here Friday to finalise the scheme.
“A memorandum of understanding (MoU) would be signed between the visiting team and Tripura government on September 28 to implement the six-year-long German-assisted project named poverty alleviation through natural resource management,” said V G Jenner, director of Tripura industries and commerce department.
The German team has held preliminary discussions with industries and commerce minister Tapan Chakraborty and chief secretary Sashi Prakash on impact of the project.
“The Rs.1.12 billion scheme would cover afforestation, development of fisheries and animal resources, besides value addition to bamboo, rubber and medicinal plants, their marketing and further development of forest-based industries,” said Jenner, who is also the chief coordinator of the Tripura bamboo mission.
Germany would also extend technical support to implement the scheme that is aimed at improving the socio-economic condition of the people, especially tribal people dependent on forests.
Earlier, China-based International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) has agreed to provide over US$48,000 to help create forest-based industries and employment for tribal shifting cultivators in Tripura.
The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has also agreed to provide Rs.3.7 billion as soft loan for an ecological conservation project, work for which has started recently.