The first Start & Stand Up Northeast, an international summit and expo organised by MSME Export Promotion Council (EPC) in Guwahati, will pave the way for development of entrepreneurship and businesses by women and youths of the region, according to MSME EPC officials here on Wednesday.
The summit, with Assam as the host state and 17 partner countries and diplomatic/business participants from over 60 countries, will be held at the Maniram Dewan Trade Centre in the city from January 17 to 19.
The chief ministers of the eight northeastern states, central ministers Piyush Goyal, Nitin Jairam Gadkari, Narendra Singh Tomar, Jitendra Singh, Giriraj Singh, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Anurag Thakur, Arjun Munda, Kiren Rijiju, Rameswar Teli and others are expected to attend the summit.
The vice-president of Niger, the deputy prime minister of the Czech Republic, the agriculture minister of Somalia, the water resources minister of Bangladesh and the commerce minister of Singapore will grace the event as special guests. Union home minister Amit Shah is the chief guest.
Former Rajya Sabha MP from Assam Bhubaneswar Kalita is the honorary chairman of the summit.
The focus areas for existing and aspiring start-ups to be discussed at the summit-cum-expo are tea, coffee, agri and food processing, horticulture, organic farming, Ayush and health wellness, biotech and bioplants, innovation, IT and electronics, petroleum sector, culture and tourism, textile and handloom and tribal women livelihood clusters, apart from others.
Speakers drawn from the best breed of entrepreneurs, innovators, venture capitalists, consultants, policy makers (from the centre and states), academicians, business practitioners, innovators, banks and financial institutions, tax and company law experts will deliberate in their particular fields of expertise.
On Wednesday, the chairman of the MSME EPC, Devender Singh Rawat, told The Telegraph here: “We will bring successful start-ups as role models to motivate the existing and potential entrepreneurs from the northeastern region. The focus of the event will be motivating women, youths and artisans to become job-givers instead of being job seekers. We want to connect them globally with importers, exporters and well-known international buying houses.
“We are also developing the border haats. There are 38 border haats of which only four are operational.” Rawat engaged in a discussion with Assam agriculture minister and chairman of the summit reception committee Atul Bora on Tuesday, when a bibliography was also released.
Rawat said Israel would bring new technology in the agri sector. Around 300 firms from the Northeast will showcase their products.
