\nThe regional seminar was organized by the University Grants Commission (NERO), Kohima College and Department of History and Archeology, NU, at Kohima College Thursday under the theme \u201cBorder trade of North East India (Nagaland) with South\/South East Asian countries.\u201d
\nDelivering the keynote address, Vice Chancellor of Nagaland University, Professor K. Kannan said Nagas should have the capacity to produce something of quality before trading with other international countries. Urging them to take advantage of the market and evaluate what they have, he asked \u201ccan we, the two million people of Nagaland, do a realistic miracle of doing business of 100 billion dollars by 2020?\u201d He further urged the people to analyze their strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to master in trade, and thereby match the caliber and capacity to compete in border trade with countries like China, Japan and South Korea that share the same region.
\nWith a total of about 50,000 unemployed youth, Prof. Kannan said the root cause of success was to be patient, hard working and to convert education into applied knowledge. He said that in this regard the University had a major role to play. He also stated that education had to be the engine of sharing and caring growth and development in Nagaland to create a \u201cnew model of social contract for university-industry interaction for promoting trade.\u201d
\nOSD, Department of Industries and Commerce, M.K. Mero said that road connectivity and interaction with the Myanmar authority was required to carry out a complete trading at Avangkhu, Longwa and Pangsa, the three border centres under Nagaland.
\nMero informed that Rs. 1.5 crores had been allotted to the three identified sites for basic infrastructure such as trading complex, warehouse, guesthouse, etc. He also said the Government of India would be approached for road connectivity to Myanmar.
\nPrincipal of Kohima College, C. Khalong Ao in his welcome address said no full fledged development had come about from international border trade in Nagaland due to bad road connectivity and communication.
\n The resource persons for the seminar include Debjyoti Das, Ph.D scholar, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; Dr. V. Babu, reader and head, Department of History and Archeology, NU; Dr. Gautam Patekar, lecturer, Department of Commerce, NU and Komal Singha, lecturer, Department of Economics, St. Joseph\u2019s College, Jakhama.
\nNorth-East India shares common international borders with countries such as Myanmar, Bangladesh and China and areas close to these nations have been involved in small volumes of border trade, largely determined by ethnic ties, affinity, long porous borders and low transaction costs. <\/p>\n