Department of Information and Public Relations

Press Release No. 94/15

CM INAUGURATES 3 DAY LOOK EAST BUSINESS SHOW 2015 IN CITY

Shillong, February 26, 2015: Meghalaya Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma today inaugurated the three- day Look East Business Show-2015 “Strengthening South East Asian Ties with NE India” at Soso Tham Auditorium, where delegates from South East Asian countries like Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and members from various business houses from the North East are participating.

Cambodian Secretary of State & Vice-Minister Tourism, H.E Tith Chantha and Deputy High Commissioner of Singapore to India Dr. Edmund Chia are among the high-level delegates from South East Asia attending the business summit organized jointly by North Eastern Council, Union Ministry of DoNER, Department of Commerce & Industries, Meghalaya and the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

Highlighting on the “natural connect” between the people of Northeast and South East Asia, Dr. Sangma called upon the people of both the regions to leverage upon the common potentialities and look for common business interests that can bring the people of these regions together. He stated that the strength of Northeast is lies in its huge forest cover and stressed the need to link sustainable ecology with sustainable livelihood. Terming Meghalaya was one of the fastest growing states in India in terms of GDP, the Chief Minister in his inaugural address said that Meghalaya is the place where things should start as far as North East is concerned, where one can invest on tourism, health and other activities. “Our investment strategy for next year is to link these investments with thousands of families across the State who will be our partners and that is going to open up lots of entrepreneurship activities”, he said.

“If we are looking at potential partnership across the countries of South East Asia, our level of competition should be at global scale and not at local scale, therefore we want to create multi-level skilled workforce that can enable us to create conducive environment to attract investment for furthering our business ventures” the Chief Minister said adding that the whole concept of “Look East” can ultimately be a game-changer only if our own people are willing to participate. He stressed on the need to create business opportunities for the citizens, need to understand fiscal management strategy, the need to create skilled workforce in order to achieve the goal of bridging the business cooperation across South East Asian countries through the North East. The Chief Minister told the visiting dignitaries that the State would be looking forward to having sector-specific engagements with them in an aggressive manner adding that “as we host this business summit we look forward for the opportunities of Look East Policy”

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Member of North Eastern Council, M.P. Bezbaruah suggested to the participating delegates and ICC to identify items that people from NE can import, identify what tourists from their countries are looking for that NE can provide, suggest possibilities of joint collaboration on health care, coordinate tour operators and identify nodal institutions for people to people contact.

Cambodian Secretary of State Tith Chantha, in his address, highlighted on the long history of friendship and cooperation between NE India and South East Asia and suggested on the need to improve connectivity to promote business cooperation between the two regions.

Deputy High Commissioner of Singapore to India, Dr. Edward Chia said that they had been encouraged to take a closer look at North East as the new Government of India had shown strong political will to develop the region. During the inaugural session, Secretary NEC, Ameising Luikham gave the keynote address, while Meghalaya Chief Secretary P B O Warjri deliberated on the theme of the business meet and Director General, ICC Dr. Rajeev Singh gave the welcome address.

Press Release No. 95/15

CCTV SURVEILLANCE INAUGURATED IN CITY

Shillong, Feb 26, 2015: “The Government as many plans for our capital city and CCTv surveillance is just one of them. Our ultimate aim is not just to create Smart City, but making Shillong a liveable city is our agenda” Meghalaya Chief Minister said while inaugurating the CCTv Surveillance under Safe & Secure Shillong at Shillong Sadar Police Station here on Thursday afternoon. The wireless mesh network connected CCTvs are put up in 30 locations in Shillong and Tura in the first phase, while the whole city and other district headquarters would be covered in the second phase. It may be mentioned that the Safe & Secure Shillong was launched by the Chief Minister on October 19, 2012.

The Chief Minister informed that this system could be used only for many other services besides crime and traffic control and said the State Government, in its endeavour to realize the dreams it dreamt on behalf of the people, had found the right partner in NECTAR, whose technology is comparable globally, adding that the project would be expanded to areas beyond Shillong. Despite financial crunch due to unforeseen fall of revenue the State had spent nearly Rs. 3.00 crore for the project in Shillong and Tura and NECTAR had shared certain component of the expenditure, Dr. Sangma informed.

“Now that we have this support system, the expectations of the people will be higher” Dr. Sangma said and urged upon the departments concerned to use the technology in a manner that can scale up their efficiency, also stressing on the need to upscale the level of commitment. He also stressed the need to leverage on this technology to make the people of the State self-regulating. He also informed that the government would take the technology further to check influx and illegal immigration.

Home Minister Roshan Warjri, who addressed the gathering as the guest of honour, expressed hope that CCTVs would help to reduce crimes in the city and also act as deterrent to criminals and said that more professionalism need to be pumped in into the system. She also spoke of the need for surveillance of the highways in the State.

Chief Secretary, PBO Warjri said that the fact that we have this system in place should not make us complacent and expressed hope that the police would make use of it in such a way that the benefits of the technology reach the citizens.

The new State DGP, Rajiv Mehta also said that the technology would bring about qualitative change in the force. He however said that technology alone would not deliver and stressed the need for hard work.

Earlier, DG, NECTAR, Sanjeev Nayar highlighted on the technology of CCTV surveillance and said that this could form the basis to make Shillong Smart City. A visual presentation was also made on its salient features, while East Khasi Hills SP, M. Kharkhrang, who chaired the function spoke on the activities stepped by the department after the launch of Safe & Secure Shillong.