The North East India Festival is a three day festival which will be held in Bangkok starting July 29, 2022. The first edition was held in 2019.
The second edition of the three-day North East India Festival, 2022, will be held in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, starting on July 29 in an effort to advance the Act East policy.
At a press conference held on Saturday, the Chief Organiser of the North East India Festival, Shyamkanu Mahanta, stated that the event’s purpose is to celebrate the 75th anniversary of India’s diplomatic relationship with Thailand and to encourage commerce, tourism, cultural exchange, and face-to-face interactions between the people of the two countries.
“North East is going to Thailand to explore the shared history and to promote trade, business and people to people exchange,” he said.
On July 29, at the Centara Grand Hotel in Bangkok, the festival’s opening session, which will be hosted by the Indian embassy in Thailand, will take place.
First Edition
The festival’s first edition was held in 2019, and it was run by the socio-cultural Trust Trend MMS. A few months later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Bangkok and stated that the focus had been on India’s North East promotion as a part of both Thailand’s Act West and India’s Act East policies.
According to the prime minister, this was the context in which the North East India festival was conducted for the first time outside of India, and Mahanta added that the effort has contributed to a greater knowledge of India’s North East.
The fact that the prime minister mentioned the festival served as a certificate for them, and as a result, they chose to host the next edition in the year 2020. Although they had completed all of the arrangements, the event had to be delayed because of the pandemic.
“Finally, we are organising it this year to mark India’s 75 years of independence and also the diplomatic relationship between the two countries”, Mahanta said.
At the inaugural session, attendees are scheduled to include the Union Minister of State for External Affairs R K Ranjan; the Chief Ministers of Meghalaya and Nagaland, Conrad Sangma and Neiphu Rio; Assam’s Handloom minister U G Brahma; Arunachal Pradesh’s Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein; Mizoram’s Tourism minister Pu Robert Romawia Royte; Tripura’s former Maharaja Pradyot Bikformer Maharaja Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma; senior bureaucrats and industrialists from both the countries.
The festival will put a special emphasis on the Tai culture of the North East, and a sizable delegation from the Tai Ahoms and Tai Khamti communities will display their history, heritage, and culture, he said.
According to Mahanta, the programme for July 30 and July 31 will feature cultural programmes by artists from all seven Northeastern states; fashion shows; art exhibitions; food display; and musical performances by the top musical bands and singers in the area.
Opportunities to businesses
The governments of the North Eastern states will put up an exhibition where MSME business owners will present goods from the area, with a focus on tea, crafts, handicrafts, agri-horticultural items, and tourism potential, among others.
Mahanta stated a series of Business to Business (B2B) meetings have been planned with big Thai tour operators connecting with the local tourist operators and departments. A buyer-seller interaction will be organised for Thai buyers and regional sellers with the goal of promoting a market for items from the North East.
According to Mahanta, the business community, all of the state governments in the area, and the Indian Embassy in Thailand have all contributed to the development of a significant platform that has opened up new avenues of opportunities for trade and tourism.
