AGARTALA,August 8 (TIWN):With the opening of third Indian internet gateway at Agartala after Mumbai and Chennai, left front government in Tripura is striving hard to turn the state into the next destination for Information Technology (IT), said Chief Secretary Y P Singh.Talking on 2nd Tripura conclave hosts by Bank of America Vice President (IT) and an NRI from Tripura Saumen Sarkar last evening here he said despite being located at the end tail of northeast, the state has emerged as corridor for South East Asian market.“Tripura is different among all other northeastern states in terms of fundamental investment infrastructure. Tripura is only state in the region having huge surplus power, socio-political peace and stability in the government and proximity to larger market of South East Asia, which the state government is desperately trying to bring investment,” Singh said.He however, pointed out besides, industrial incentives for outside investment; the state government has been campaigning for monetizing abandoned natural gas, rich biodiversity resources, educated work force and political stability at national and international market.“There is a competition among the states of India now for industrialization.

We need to sell ourselves to attract investment and Tripura must portray it’s potential frequently at national and international forum,” Governor added.

Supplementing Chief Secretary, Governor of Tripura Tathagata Roy without naming Mamata Banerjee said, “If Tripura government is sincere at all to bring investment, the state government should facilitate the industries and trade bodies who are winding up their business from good neighbour of us due to political unrest and atrocities.”

Roy also opined for strategy correction of Tripura to bring good investment in the state, as it is champion among many of Indian states to ensure conducive atmosphere for industries and investment.

Meanwhile, the organiser of the conclave, Sarkar suggested Tripura to follow the footstep of Telengana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra by constituting a core group including Tripura origin NRIs and entrepreneurs settled outside to promote the state worldwide for industrialization    

Sarker stressed on the issue that Tripura has an adequate amount of resources, political stability, electricity and young talent in the state who can establish the IT hub in a full-fledged manner with the introduction of the 3rd Internet Gateway in Agartala.

“As roughly estimated more 12,000 IT professionals of Tripura are there in different parts of India and outside who wanted to come back. The scope has come for Tripura government to hock in them, as Bangladesh signed an agreement to lease out surplus under-sea internet 10 Gbps bandwidth to us connecting Agartala, which is a reality in six months,” Sarkar said.

He added central government facilitates good internet connectivity but this is the duty of the state government to utilize it to set up IT industries though strategic partnership with global investors.

Leading economist of Tripura Prof Indraneel Bhowmik stated that Tripura has huge scope of growth in manufacturing industries based on rubber, bamboo, tourism and food processing and the state needs immediate boost in secondary sector, as per capita income reached to Rs 55,000, literacy touched upon around 97 percent.

The conclave was addressed by eminent journalist Subir Bhaumik contemplating to adopt Taiwng model in Tripura for IT revolution. The conclave was also addressed by Chief Technology Officer of Hinduja Global Solutions Limited (HTMT Global) C Subramanya, Director Taipei Trade Centre Fu-Han-To and trade officials of USA and UK.