Guwahati, July 9: The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) has decided to set up its regional office here.

Assocham's secretary general D.S. Rawat made this announcement at MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) Sammelan - Nurturing Entrepreneurs' Sustainability - here today.The association will set up a training institute for entrepreneurs, help in food-processing skill development and play a facilitating role for making finances available and also connect marketing agencies.

A report, Nurturing the Start-ups - for Building Economy, was released at the meet.

Jointly organised by Assocham and Resurgent India (financial services firm), the conference highlighted that in spite of immense potential of micro, small and medium enterprises in the Northeast, the region has largely remained underdeveloped.

The report said a key constraint to the growth has been poor infrastructure and limited connectivity (roads, telecommunications and power supply), both within the region as well as with the rest of the country.

Lack of skilled manpower, high unemployment and land prices are other major hurdles in the region. Assam, being the largest state in the Northeast, alone has 2.2 million unemployed youths, it added.

Downstream ancillary industries could generate around 1,50,000 jobs, but Assam does not have a huge land bank to set up large industries and cannot acquire land by displacing small farmers.

The government needs to build a proper mechanism for the dissemination of information among women entrepreneurs. "Women should not be discriminated. Bankers and institutions should be gender sensitive so that women are encouraged to set up MSMEs in the region," the report stated.

The Centre's Make-in-India initiative and its emphasis on increasing the share of manufacturing in the gross domestic product (GDP) from the present 14 to15 per cent to 25 per cent by 2022 has the potential to transform the fortunes of the small business sector, enabling it to scale hitherto unheard of heights, it added.

"A large number of small primary lenders will require significant investments in monitoring and compliance. Internal mechanism for risk assessment and mitigation is required. For the model to work, there should be a synergy between the lenders and the financer," the report stated.

The meeting was addressed by Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship regional head Manoj Das, Exim Bank additional general manager Poornima Busi, Finer chairman R.S. Joshi and others.