NEDFi to back foreign investors’ projects in northeast

AGARTALA - The state-owned North Eastern Development Finance Corporation (NEDFi) is keen to provide financial support to single or joint venture projects involving foreign investors, a top official said here Wednesday.

“If any foreign investor on his own or jointly with the Indian entrepreneurs is willing to set up any industrial or infrastructural or service sector projects in northeast region, the NEDFi would offer fiscal support,” NEDFi chairman Buru Paul Muktieh told IANS.

“However, the foreign investor or the overseas firm has to be registered in India to get the financial aid,” he clarified.

According to the finance body chief, the NEDFi has so far disbursed loans worth Rs.1,080 crore against the sanction of Rs.1,474 crore to 2,012 units and projects in eight northeastern states.

The NEDFi has also been providing training and skill development to entrepreneurs, making market linkages, operating research and development centre for medicinal and aromatic plants, organising exposure visits of the industrialists besides financial help.

“Unlike bank loans, the NEDFi’s recovery rate is almost 100 percent,” Muktieh stated.

The corporation, which was initially promoted by various financial and insurance institutions and now under the control of union ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), is also looking for financing more public-private partnership (PPP) ventures and projects in the region.

“We are keen to provide loan with simplified provisions, but the investors must come up with viable projects, specially infrastructure ventures,” the NEDFi chairman declared.

A permanent exhibition centre, NEDFi Haat, has been set up at Ambari, near Assam’s main city Guwahati, for providing market linkages to the artisans and entrepreneurs.