Travel advisory against Assam major hurdle in attracting foreign investment: Himanta

GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said that travel advisory against the northeastern region by several countries is a major challenge in attracting investments, even as the state gears up for a mega business summit here later this month.

Sarma said he has requested the countries to view Assam in isolation and not club all the North Eastern states together.

He said talks are already underway with Japan, Australia and other nations to persuade them to withdraw the adverse advisory as the local government is pushing for viewing Assam "in isolation" from the other states of the region.

Addressing a press conference in the run-up to ‘Advantage Assam 2.0 Investment and Infrastructure Summit’, Sarma said, “Most embassies have marked Assam in ‘grey’ and have a statutory warning for its citizens against visiting Assam, as the state is clubbed together as ‘North East’. Removing these advisories is topmost priority for us.”

He said countries like Japan and Australia are being persuaded to change this advisory, with a team from the Asian country already here to look into the matter while an Australian delegation is scheduled to reach shortly.

There is no adverse situation in Assam, and all stakeholders, including government, media and public, have to be together to drive home this point, he asserted.

“As chief minister of Assam, I cannot influence other states. What I am doing is asking them (foreign nations), to view Assam in isolation,” he added.

“To attract foreign investment, the travel advisory has to be withdrawn. And at the same time, we also have to show them our strengths, like skilling options for our human resources, peace and stability – politically, economically and in law and order,” he said.

Non-availability of vast tracts of land needed for setting up big industries is also a problem for the state, which the government is working on to address, the CM added.

“In spite of these limitations, we are in the process of ensuring foreign investment this time. And if we can address these issues, more investment will come. The people have a major role in taking forward the spade work being done by the government through the upcoming Summit,” he maintained.

The two-day Summit will be opened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 25, with Japan, Australia, Bhutan, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia confirming participation as ‘partner countries’.

Philippines, Finland, Iceland, Austria and the Republic of Korea have confirmed presence in the Summit, while confirmation from 14 other countries is awaited, Sarma said.

The Summit will see participation from four key bilateral agencies and three multilateral agencies, he said.

Over 7,000 participants have already registered for the Summit, which will focus discussions on various thematic areas, the CM added.