Samriddhi 2005 to brand North-East

Taking a leaf from the West Bengal government's initiative to sell Kolkata as an information technology destination to national and international firms, all the North-eastern states and Sikkim have come together for the first time to jointly brand the region's potential through a brand summit.

The North Eastern Chamber of Commerce & Industry (NECCI) will be promoting the north eastern region at the first-of-its-kind brand summit labelled Samriddhi 2005 in Guwahati between January 13 and 15.

NECCI has working on branding techniques for the north-east with the business community and entrepreneurs in the region.

The brand summit will seek to create a new brand slogan, "From insurgence to resurgence", for the north-eastern region, highlighting the potential in sectors like hydel power, tourism, cultivation of medicinal plants and handicrafts.

"Besides the chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya, several senior ministers and bureaucrats from the North-east and some leading business houses will be at Samriddhi 2005, along with Union textile minister Shankarsinh Vaghela, according to D K Sarma, secretary-general of NECCI.

The West Bengal government has had some success in transforming the state's image by branding itself as an IT-friendly destination to Indian and global corporates.

The north-eastern states have realised the need to come together and make a joint effort to brand the north-eastern region, claimed Ujjwal K Chowdhury, director of Icons, which has prepared a study titled "Branding challenges in Northeast". "The north-east is a corridor to China and Myanmar," Chowdhury added.

The brand summit would aim at creating awareness among entrepreneurs and business leaders, said Sarma.

Medicinal and herbal plants grew in profusion in the region but were neither harvested nor exploited. The state governments in the region were keen on developing the sector and marketing products which contained plant and herbal medications.

"Pharmaceutical and cosmetic manufacturing firms are looking at the north-eastern region with the rise in the global demand for aromatic, medicinal and herbal plants," claimed C S Jadhav, director of Hyderabad-based Nandan Biomatrix.

Nandan has entered into state-level tie-ups with Andhra Pradesh, Jharkand and some other state governments for commercial cultivation of select medicinal and herbal plants and is negotiating with some other state governments on this issue.

Nandan is looking forward to get a foothold in the North-eastern region which has a vast reservoir of medicinal and herbal plants that remains untapped, Jadhav said.

NECCI has also identified tourism and agriculture-based industries as thrust areas for regional development.