Want globalisation of local goods against localisation of global goods: Sikkim CM Golay at G20 event

The G20 events in Sikkim kicked off today with Business B20 meeting on the topic 'opportunities for multilateral business partnership in tourism, hospitality, pharmaceuticals and organic farming' at Chintan Bhawan in Gangtok.

CM Prem Singh Golay and Principal Economic Advisor Rupa Dutta of the Department of promotion of industry and internal trade were present at the inaugural session.

The session also had representatives from NITI Aayog, the External Affairs Ministry, the G20 Secretariat and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) North East Council.

Speaking at the B20 meeting, Sikkim CM Golay spoke on 'globalisation of locals as against localisation of globals'.

"So far the globalisation process has just been one way - localisation of globals. We want to reverse the process," he said.

Unlike the traditional framework of Foreign Direct Investment or domestic interments, Sikkim CM proposed, a "fully owned or joint venture in areas like technology transfer, supplier of raw materials, infrastructure like cold chains, professional participation, and expertise provider, finance, marketing, value chain, research and development".

Among the various areas of focus for Sikkim, CM Golay appealed to B20 and G20 delegates to support and invest to make Sikkim a green agro-ecological destination of the world.

"We are in dire need of green technology that would enhance the productivity and yield in our limited farmlands. Most of our farmers are small and marginal. We are ready to explore the possibility of fair trade principles to value chain arrangements so that our farmers get remunerative prices right at the farm gates in the rural vicinities of Sikkim. We want value addition and processing facilities within the State and create an organic niche. We have varieties of seeds and plants indigenous to Sikkim. We need to build capacities among new-generation farmers and train them on newer methods of organic farming. We need a range of interdisciplinary institutions that deal with training, research and experimentations, productivity enhancement, processing, marketing, and making other sectors move to organic culture," he said.

Speaking on Sikkim's tourism potential CM Golay highlighted how the State records 1.5 million tourist arrivals annually.

"We have long-term objectives to gradually move a major segment of Sikkim tourism to high-value tourism. We want to integrate tourism with our plans of making Sikkim an educational hub, a health destination and the geography of politico-cultural history, trade, and pilgrimage routes and biodiversity hotspots. The delegates can effectively participate in our business of Organic Tourism and high-value tourism ventures," he said.

With over 55 pharmaceutical units in Sikkim, Sikkim CM said, "we want to consolidate it further both by bringing in other well-known pharmaceutical giants and also by diversifying the products with substantive Sikkimese organic inputs and active pharmaceutical ingredients. We plan to commercially establish horizontal and vertical integration of rich traditional medicinal systems with the global market."

"This would also mean bringing together stakeholders like traditional faith healers, and communities that cultivate herbs. The global naturopathy market is staggering today. The partnership would do wonders to both India and the global community," he added.

CM Golay also highlighted the scope for investment in climate change-related activities including green energy, small and mini hydro projects, zero carbon ventures, disaster forecast and management, and climate change resistance agriculture.

"Some of our farmers have already adapted to the climate changes by just using their traditional wisdom and their orthodox practices. They do not know the science and complexities of climate change impact. We are yet to build institutions to understand, deal and propagate the knowledge to the global world", CM Golay said. (ANI)