NAMSAI, Oct 24: Deputy Chief Minister  Chowna Mein inaugurated a 10-day workshop on Bamboo Construction ‘Building With Bamboo’ at Golden Pagoda Resorts, Tengapani  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 out that the North East region has the highest potential in bamboo in the country and it 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 in construction. He informed that earlier in a GST Council meeting, he proposed for reduction of GST 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 opportunities are coming up for the people of the State as it is opening 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 improvise and sell our finished products to attract outsiders.

He said that for this to happen we need both political and social will and support of the experts.
He also said that bamboo workshop has been conceptualized to enable people to learn from the experts and skill themselves in building durable houses with bamboo. He added that for this reason, the workshop has been made purely a practical oriented one.
MLA Chongkham, Chow Tewa Mein said it is necessary to identify for which purpose our bamboos are good at and to make best use of it.
MLA Namsai, Chau Zingnu Namchoom opined to use bamboo as substitute for wood 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 bamboo 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.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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