We could market Arunachal Pradesh through Bamboo and its products”- Chowna Mein
“we could market Arunachal Pradesh through Bamboo and its products”, said Dy CM Chowna Mein, during the inauguration of a Workshop on ‘Building With Bamboo’ .
Namsai
Deputy Chief Minister, Chowna Mein inaugurated a 10 Days Workshop on ‘Building With Bamboo’ at Golden Pagoda Resorts, Tengapani in Namsai District in presence of MLA Chongkham, Chow Tewa Mein and MLA Namsai, Chau Zingnu Namchoom here today.
In his inaugural speech, Mein said, “we could market Arunachal Pradesh through Bamboo and its products”. Citing that there is a huge scope for investment in Arunachal Pradesh as the State has so much of wealth in the form of natural resources, he said Bamboo is one of it.
He pointed that the North East region has the highest potentials of Bamboo in the country and Bamboo is a part and parcel of the life of North Eastern people as it is widely used as eatables as well as in making furniture and as construction materials. He informed that earlier in a GST Council meeting, he proposed for reduction of GST Rate on Bamboo Furniture and its products from 28% to 12%, accordingly the same was accepted and reduced to 12% by the GST Council.
He further said that the opportunities are coming for the people of the State as it is opening up to the outside world with the improved road, rail and air connectivity. He said, “though there is tremendous scope for establishing economic and cultural relations with the South East Asian Countries. But for that to happen, we need to keep ourselves ready through improvisation of infrastructures and road communication”. He added that entrepreneurship is one such area where we can improvised and sale our finished products to attract outsiders.
He said that for this to happen we need both political and social will and support of the expertise.
He also said that Bamboo Workshop has been conceptualised to enable our people to learn from the experts and skilled themselves in building durable houses with bamboo. He added that for this reason, the workshop has been made purely a practically oriented one.
He expressed hope that the workshop will be a fruitful one and requested the experts to provide an idea and draw a road map on how to utilize the vast resources of Bamboo of this Himalayan State for the economic benefit of the people and for the future generation.
MLA Chongkham, Chow Tewa Mein said to identify for which purpose our bamboos are good at and to make best use of the bamboo.
MLA Namsai, Chau Zingnu Namchoom opined to use Bamboo as substitute for the woods for economic upliftment of the people as the timber business had been banned in the State. He also expressed hope that the entrepreneurs of the State will be immensely benefitted from this workshop.
Jorg Stamm, International Expert on Bamboo structures while speaking in the inaugural session said that the Bamboos of Arunachal Pradesh has the potential for export to the outside world. Highlighting multiple uses of bamboo, he said that there is huge potential for bamboo based industrial development and construction of durable houses from the bamboos found in the State.
Kamesh Salam, CEO South Asia Bamboo Foundation said that the Workshop is being organized to transfer technology and hands on skills to the local entrepreneurs of the State. Dr G Murtem, Deputy State Mission Director, State Bamboo Development Agency also spoke on the occasion.
Apart from International Experts on Bamboo Structures from Colombia, United Kingdom and Bhutan, 28 participants including 12 architects from other States namely Nagaland, Assam, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Manipur and about 25 participants from Arunachal Pradesh are participating in the workshop.
The 10 days Training Workshop on Bamboo from 24th October to 2nd November 2018 is jointly organised by the South Asia Bamboo Foundation (SABF) and Building Materials & Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC), Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Govt of India and sponsored by the Govt of Arunachal Pradesh.
Among others, Deputy Commissioner Dr Tapashya Raghav and HoDs, Officers from State Forest Research Institute, VC Arunachal University of Studies, Namsai also attended the programme.
