India after hosting all 10-member of the Association of South Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the Republic Day celebrations is ready to kick-start “Advanatage Assam”-a Global Investors Summit from February 3, 2018. The “Advantage Assam” is the largest investment promotion and facilitaion initiative by the Assam govermrnt. The announced of the summit was made last year by Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal. It is a two-day summit organised by the Assam government in association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Assam by organizing the Global Summit signals as the ideal destination of investment capabale of catering not to only the North East and the rest of India, but also to serve as the manufacturing and services hub for the ASEAN region, one of the world’s fastest-growing region with an economy of more than three trillion USD. Assam, with its strategic location, offers a market of 800 million people as it serves as the gateway to the South-East Asian market. The focused verticals of Advantage are agriculture and food processing, handloom-textile-handicrafts, logistics, river transport-port township, IT-ITeS, pharmaceutical-medical equipment, plastics-petrochemicals and power, tourism-hospitality-wellness, civil aviation, petroleum – natural gas and startups-innovation are the other focus areas for the business tycoons who will be attending the summit.
Today tourism is not only about sightseeing or entertainment but has become one of the major industries for a country’s economic development. In fact, tourism industry is one the fastest growing industry in the world today. As well aware of the fact that North East India has tremendous potential for tourism industry to grow. It just needs to exploit the proper potentialities. The state of Assam is best known for her unique natural beauty with flora and fauna, historical monuments, pilgrim centre, tea gardens and its colorful cultural festivals. All these can make the state and the region as one of the best destination of the tourists.
On the other hand tourism gives the opporunity of income and employemnt. It will provide more employment opportunities in comparison to normal manufacturing industries in Assam without disturbing the environment. Several types of business such as hotels, restaurants, tour operators, handicrafts, transporters, travel agents, etc, can get benefit from it. Other allied businesses such as cab drivers, photographers, adventure sports organizers, and food and beverage suppliers can also have profitable earnings.
It is generally believed that tourists, both domestic and foreign, visit different places in search of specialities, which include a variety of things, such as, beauties of nature, architecture, peace of mind and fulfilment in religious places, new and different variety of food, culture of the people and uncommon adventure. Assam is richly endowed by nature to become a spotlight of tourism, but mere having a good number of attractive tourist spots is not enough unless all the minimum requirements stated above are not readily available with proper execution. “Advantage Assam” can be coined as the new birth of tourism industry in North East region. As with the global investement to be made in the Assam we can foresee a better improvement in the infrastruture, connectivity, controlled insurgency and so on.
Thus, if tourism is developed through careful planning, it is sure to bring revolutionary transformation in Assam economy.
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