Germany is willing to invest more in northeastern states. This was conveyed by a six-member Parliamentary Delegation from Germany to DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday.
The German delegation is headed by Jürgen Hard, who currently serves as a member of the Bundestag.
The DoNER minister appraised the delegation about the Centre’s focus for the overall development of the Northeast, including that of infrastructure.
Singh also wanted to know from the German delegation as to how Germany can help in commissioning developmental projects in the region.
He said that the Central government is allocating 10 per cent of its resources, despite the region having a 3.5 per cent population of the country and 7 per cent area.
“This signifies the priority being attached to the region,” the minister added.
Singh said that in the last two years major steps were taken for air connectivity and for the rapid development of inland waterways in the region.
There are 20 inland waterways including the one at the mighty Brahmaputra for cheap and easy transportation of goods.
He said Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar is now linked with New Delhi through rail route and an airport at Itanagar will soon be completed.
Singh also briefed the delegation about international collaborative arrangements for the development of Northeast and said that Japan is investing in a big way for the construction of roads and bridges.
“Israel is having a project on citrus food parks,” Singh quipped in.
DoNER secretary Inderjit Singh informed that India and Germany had a bilateral collaboration in the field of climate change and only in December 2019, a pilot project on the subject was concluded.
Climate Change Adaption-North Eastern Region (CCA-NER) PHASE-2 is a bilateral project between Government of India and Federal Government of Germany to implement the technical cooperation in partnership with the Indian Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region.
The CCA-NER Phase-2 is being implemented under the broader framework of the Indo-German Environment Programme-Rural Areas (IGEP-RA) in the States of Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim with an objective of improving resource-saving and climate-resilient agricultural practices.
Some key activities carried out are in the areas of Eri Silk value chain, Bamboo value chain, Spring-shed management shed, marketing linkages for organic products of Northeast, honey bee value chain and MDoNER-NEC Knowledge Management portal.