SHILLONG:
Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma, has reiterated his vision of making Meghalaya one of the top 10 states in the country in terms of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indexes and per capita income.
The chief minister was speaking at the state level workshop on Early Child Development Programme (ECDP) at Yojana Bhavan here on September 26.
Highlighting the importance of the ECD programme, he said that the goal is to have healthy and productive citizens and in the process take Meghalaya to the top.
“We can be among the top 10 states and the way to do that is to really set very high goals. And that is why when I talk to people I like to compare ourselves to big nations, not big states. I tell people that countries like New Zealand, which has a 50 lakh population, has a GDP that is more than ours with 38 lakh population. Our GDP is $5 billion while theirs is $250 billion. So, their productivity is at a different level,” he said.
Urging the participants to look at the bigger picture, he said that the state is placed at the bottom five states while citing reasons such as low per capita income and high fertility rate.
“Obviously as the population grows and the GDP doesn’t grow at a higher rate we will not see the overall per capita income go up. And therefore, for the per capita income to go up, we need to see the different areas where the economic activities can go up,” he said.
The chief minister observed that there is a need to give the much-needed boost to sectors such as tourism and agriculture with increased attention to marketing and also an investment on human capital.
He stressed on decisive leadership, capable administration and disciplined society as drivers of development.