GUWAHATI, Dec 12 - The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has constituted its first Assam State Council to focus on four core areas � manufacturing, agro food processing, tourism and skill development and entrepreneurship.
The council would comprise prominent business leaders, professionals and entrepreneurs and would be headed by Ashish Phookan, managing director, Jungle Travels India and chairman, Assam Bengal Navigation. Phookan has played a pioneering role in the tourism sector of the region.
The Assam State Council of the organisation has decided to proactively promote local entrepreneurship by identifying a pool of young entrepreneurs who would be offered opportunity for handholding and development of capacities through various measures including exposure to expertise and facilitation of banking linkages.
Moreover, the issue of difficulty faced by industrialists in transportation of their goods by railway due to the low priority assigned to transportation of industrial goods by the railways, would also be taken up by the FICCI�s local arm for the benefits of traders and small entrepreneurs of the State.
Sources in FICCI told this newspaper that the issue would soon be taken up with the railway authorities and the government.
The council has also deliberated on the need for a bio-diversity university, which could help in better understanding of the eco-perspective of the State and the rest of the region and also help leverage the same to promote sectors like agro-food processing, medicinal and aromatic plants and tourism etc., without adversely impacting the sensitive ecology of the region.
The Assam State Council has decided to constitute five sub-committees on manufacturing, agro-food processing, tourism, skill development and entrepreneurship, and policy and taxation.
