Guwahati, Sept 15 : The North East Business Summit Chairman and Minister for Development of North East Region (DoNER) Mani Shankar Aiyar urged the private sector to take greater interest in the region.

At present only 0.5 per cent of the capital formation of private sector was coming to this region.

Business and investments dominated the opening session of the fourth North East Business Summit which started in Guwahati today.

Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari inaugurated the summit.

Speaking on the occasion Ansari said, “Today we need concerted and innovative approaches to fashioning economic and trade arrangements. This would not only ensure closer integration with the national economy but also with the economies of neigbouring countries in the region.”

Aiyar said till recently there was no integrated road map for development of the region but with the release of the Vision 2020 document in July this lacuna has been corrected.

He emphasised that to attain the objectives of the 2020 vision the government investment in the North East will have to rise to Rs. 14 lakh crores from the current one lakh crore.

Aiyar expressed hope that the foreign sector would get motivated to invest in North East through this summit.

He said that participation from neighbours like Myanmar and Bangladesh means exploration of serious business opportunities has begun. The Minister assured the investors that the security scenario in the North East was nothing to be worried about. He said that barring isolated pockets things are very peaceful in the area.

Several Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) are likely to be signed at the end of the two day summit. (ANI)