Piecemeal information is available from the news paper reports about the forthcoming administration and investor interface on the north east to be held this week in Mumbai. The concerned citizens of the State are anxious that the State does not meet the same fate which had befallen the State in the summit about four years back in Kolkata.
In the summit in Kolkata even investors from the North America were also present looking for opportunities for investment in the region. But when Manipur went to the summit then, it did very little, if any, home work and came back with empty bowls. The thinking public are confident that the State government must definitely have learnt lessons from the earlier fiasco. The Entrepreneurs: Nevertheless, it would be worthwhile to examine how one may entice entrepreneurs, given the present regional and international contexts.
Here, it may be in place to recall the motive of entrepreneurs. Any entrepreneur or investor is basically interested in profit. They are continuously on the look out for scopes of profit, and monopoly profit if possible. They are not altruists. So it would be wrong on the part of the State if we harp on the beauty and culture of the State for attracting the investors. They are just not interested in such matters in as much as they are interested in hard profits. Profits Where: The investors or entrepreneurs are fully conversant with the fact that they can earn profits better than others only by introducing a new product or by adopting a new marketing strategy or by producing an old product in a different way. They will not be coming to the State just for the sake of helping the State. They would, however, be willing to help the State if they perceive scopes for profits for themselves. Approach: Given the above background, what Manipur should try to impress the investors present in the forthcoming Summit is that the State possesses scope for earning profit for themselves through one or all of the avenues mentioned above. We can attract them by making ourselves attractive.
In this context, if we go by the newspaper reports, the State government seems to have identified the areas for agro-based industries, sericulture, handloom and handicrafts and tourism. Now no investor of the twenty-first century would be interested in these areas in a romantic way we are used to. The responsibility of the government is to make these areas attractive from the angle of size and avenues for innovation for profit.
In other words, we can make these areas worthy for investment only if we can throw open a visualization for an IT-based industrialization processes in these areas. We have to make them realize the potential for introducing the Wangkhei Phis in the bedrooms of the western beauties. Another area which might concern the entrepreneurs is the state of infrastructure in the State. Here we can think of throwing the ball into their court by offering attractive avenues for investment in this sector itself through BOLT (build, own, lease and transfer) or in a way where they can visualize profit either immediately or otherwise.
Another aspect which would certainly demand explanation from the administration by the entrepreneurs is the quality and effectiveness of governance in the State. Here the State Government certainly needs to exercise its mind on proposed ways of improving the governance in time for the investors to arrive. The State Government also would have to do quite a lot to convince the investors on possible areas of investor public relationship, given the armed conflict situation in the State.
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