Guwahati, Aug. 14: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is planning to float an investment facility to enable the private sector to fuel economic growth in the Northeast. It has been christened the Northeast India Finance and Development Facility (NIFDEF), announced ADB team leader Hans Peter Brunner at a meeting in Guwahati recently.

The meeting discussed an ADB report titled Preparing the Northeastern States’ Trade and Investment Creation Initiative.

Brunner said the facility would provide the core investment and technical assistance, particularly to small and manufacturing enterprises in the region.

He clarified that NIFDEF would not be a separate institution but a facility to be managed jointly by select firms. These entities will include ICICI Winfra, the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi), the North Eastern Council (NEC), the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (Nabard).

He said the agency that would manage NIFDEF would be selected through a transparent process by floating open tenders. For this, Pricewaterhouse Coopers is preparing the documentation.

The draft report of Preparing the Northeastern States’ Trade and Investment Creation Initiative has supported the design and establishment of a multifaceted development approach to help overcome some of the basic infrastructural, institutional and entrepreneurial constraints that are primarily responsible for poor private sector performance in the Northeast.