Meghalaya Trade & Commerce
The basic objective of economic reforms was to improve productivity growth and competitiveness in the Indian manufacturing sector. These reforms were aimed at making Indian manufacturing sector more efficient and technologically up to date, with the expectation that these changes would enable Indian manufacturing sector to achieve higher and sustainable growth. The government started to deregulate the Indian economy with a liberalization programme, focused on the investment pattern, trade policies, the financial sector, taxation and public enterprises.
In recent times, Industrialization has become the catch word of the midtwentieth century and industrial development of the under developed countries or developing countries like India. One of the great world crusades of our times, the Less Developed Countries (LDCs) hope to find in it a solution their problems of poverty, insecurity, overpopulation, backwardness, illiteracy etc. They consider it a panacea for all the evils of their social and economic life. In fact, the essence of economic development of an LDC like India consists essentially in the growth of industrialization.
Realizing the importance of industrialization, once Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru rightly remarked, “Real progress must ultimately depend on industrialization”. His vision was to see India in the group of developed nations of the world and industrialization was the only key to restructure the economy and to achieve sustained growth. Indian economy is a basically an agriculture based economy. It has been evident from the experience of the most of advanced countries that growth based upon agriculture sector will not be sustainable growth.
After studying such behavior of terms of trade they made their belief that for the agriculture based economies terms of trade would always become unfavorable in long run because;
- a) The income elasticity of export-goods of agricultural countries is low, while the income elasticity of import-goods is very high. As in case of domestic demand, the demand for agricultural products in other countries, in particular advance countries, is very low. In fact, developed countries have surpluses in agriculture products for exports. As against this, the demand for the import of manufactured goods by LDCs is very intense; and
- b) With the advancement of technology, input-output coefficients are declining and most of primary products which were used as raw material are replaced by the industrial cheaper raw material.
On the other hand, if we develop only tertiary sector and ignore industrial sector then there may be tendency of inflation in the economy and this inflation may lead to deceleration economic growth. Therefore, industrialization is the only method to achieve sustained economic growth. Moreover, economic history demonstrates that to eliminate a country’s techno-economic backwardness it is necessary to develop the industrial sector and then to diversify it over a wide range of area and activities. Industrialization is a process of economic organization characterized by rapid setting up of industries and has invariably been the accompaniment of economic development. Nevertheless, economic development should not be treated synonymous with industrialization because industrialization is only a part of the whole process of economic development.
TRADE
Meghalaya is dominantly depend on agriculture and commercial forest industry. The major crops of Meghalaya are potatoes, rice, maize, pineapples, bananas, papayas, spices, etc.
In addition to the central government’s incentives for investments in the northeast region, the state offers a host of industrial incentives. The natural resources, policy incentives and infrastructure in the state favour investments in the tourism, hydroelectric power, manufacturing and mining sectors. Mineral, horticulture, electronics, IT, agro-processing and tourism have been identified as the thrust sectors for industrial development. The state has abundant natural resources, which offer significant avenues for investment. About 14 per cent (3,108 square kilometres) of Meghalaya is covered by bamboo forests and the state is one of the leading bamboo producers in the country.
The Commerce & Industries Department of Meghalaya & its constituent unit, Meghalaya Industrial Development Corporation, are jointly responsible for the development of industrial infrastructure in the state
Meghalaya has an established tradition of high-quality weaving. Around 15, 900 families are involved in handloom activities in the state. There are eight handloom production centres, 24 handloom demonstration – cum – production centres, 24 weaving training centres and a state –level handloom training institute (Mendipathar, East Garo Hills) in the state.
Meghalaya, with abundant deposits of coal, limestone, kaolin feldspar, quartz, granite, industrial clay and uranium and a small deposit base of sillimanite, bauxite, base metals and apatite has great industrial potential.
Meghalaya has a climate that supports agricultural and horticultural activities. The state offers potential for investment in these areas.