On October 27, 2023, the three day North East Indian Festival (NEIF) will be held in Vietnam to promote India’s Act East Policy with stakeholders from both countries (India and Vietnam) will hold bilateral discussions on trade and tourism. The inaugural session of the third edition of the Festival will be hosted by the Consul General of India, Madan Mohan Sethi, the NIEF Chief organizer Shyamkanu Mahanta told a media agency.
Significance of the Event
The Consul General says that the festival constitutes a diverse array of activities including trade, tourism and academic sessions that will facilitate business and academic linkages between India and Vietnam. “This event exemplifies our collective endeavor to bridge North east India and Vietnam through trade, tourism and people to people exchanges aligning with the Act East Policy of PM Narendra Modi.
The festival, organised in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) seeks to take forward the Act East Policy by focusing on trade, tourism, cultural and academic exchanges. The DONER (Development of North Eastern Region) ministry will organize a meeting on tourism and facilitate interaction between tour operators from North East India and their Vietnamese counterparts.
The overwhelming support from the State Governments of the Northeastern Region has also helped in organizing the country’s biggest event in Southeast Asia. The festival will host various exhibitions including Incredible India destinations, textiles state specific zones representing various northeastern Indian states and the tea industry among others.
Sub Events
A meeting on trade will also be held under the aegis of Invest India to showcase the North East as an attractive destination for investments, tourism, and bilateral trade. Apart from this, a people to people exchange meeting will also be held to offer a platform for historians, scholars, academicians, scholars from Northeast India to engage with their Vietnamese counterparts, Mahanta said.
The events entertainment line up will feature an array of cultural performances including colorful folk dances from North East India, rock bands from both the countries and fashion shows by designers from the region. Leading designers such as Sangamitra Phukan, Bidyut Rakesh, Manjushree Saikia, Yana Ngoba, Hasina Karibh and Iba Mallai among others will showcase their works.
Additionally, the fashion show will involve feature models from Vietnam, Mahanta said. The Musical performances by the TaFMA (Task Force for Music and Arts) from Nagaland, the Fantastic Company, Bright Lights, guitar prodigy Imnaila Jamir, Trans Effect, KL Pamei and the popular band from Meghalaya Summersault will take part actively.
India’s Act East Policy
This policy was launched by the Narendra Modi Government in 2014 which is nothing but an upgrade of the former Look East Policy launched by PM Narsimha Rao in 1991 which aimed to open up the Indian economy after the loss of its financial partner, the USSR. The policy is aimed at cooperation with countries of Southeast Asia, (ASEAN countries), East Asian countries like Japan, South Korea and this is done at economic, people to people, cultural and military levels.
The crux of this policy is to develop India’s North Eastern Region (NER) as India views the Northeast as the opening gate or a geopolitical pathway for India to South East Asian nations, Myanmar, and Thailand in particular.
One of the most important centres of infrastructure development in this regard is the town of Moreh in Manipur, India. Projects under this policy include: India-Myanmar Trilateral Highway, Mekong Ganga Cooperation, Kaladan Multi Modal projects etc. India is looking forward to expand and extend its Act East Policy projects to nations such as Vietnam (in this context) and Cambodia and Laos.
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