The South East Asian Connect programme of the Northeast Startup Festival has been organized successfully today on 9AM to 11 AM, 29th May 2022 through an online platform. The programme is prepared has been prepared with a focus on collaborating the startup ecosystem of Northeast India with that of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and the South East Asian countries. Mr. Pankaj Gogoi, President, Northeast Startup Festival 2022 has shared the vision as to create the bridge between the startup ecosystem with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and the South East Asian countries.
He also shared the objectives of the programme how the collaboration between the startup mission can lead to collaboration, how the educational exchange programme among the universities can happen and then create sister city concepts in exchanging the best practices of the ecosystem.
Ms. Arundhati Bora, Sr. VP, Northeast Startup Festival moderated the session by setting the context to the programme theme of the webinar “understanding of the startup ecosystem of each of the countries and how each startup ecosystem will collaborate to take it to a global perspective.
The First Speaker of the Programme Ms. Kate Socatiyanurak , founder of MERANDI , Thailand spoke about bags industry and her startup has been working in the merchandise and luxury segments of products.
Mr. Pranjal Konwar, COO, Assam Startup shared about the startup ecosystem in Northeast India how it has been growing and how the changes have happened over the years and how government is taking steps to welcome the startups.
Mr. Karma Thinley, MD, Rabphal tours, Gelephu Bhutan and treks shared how the tourism can be developed between Assam and Bhutan , can initiate the road trips , cycle rally can happen and how the overall tourism will flourish when things work together .
Mr. Haider Mohammad Chowdhury, Member, Asian India Business Council, HSMM Group of companies spoke about the startup ecosystem of Laos and invited as many startups from Northeast India to launch their startup in Laos and even other south east Asian countries.
Mr.Anshuman Saikia , President , Northeast India Association Thailand spoke about the overall ecosystem of the South East Asian countries and how Northeast India can work on collaboration with Thailand . The startup ecosystem in thailand is effectively good enough for Northeast India startups to learn and collaborate.
Mr. Kok Tjun Chan , Cofounder for Springtide equity partners , Bangkok , who demonstrated the equity based investing in his venture and how his ventures are trying to invest in few of the startup companies and organisations .
Mr. Partha Gogoi , President ,GAEF and Ms. Anjana Bordoloi , General Secretary , GAEF attended the programme from Washington DC and explained how the global platform is trying to develop the entrepreneurial space in the global perspective and shared that this platform will help a lot in developing the startup ecosystem.
Ms. Nikeeta Gautam, journalist on Startup Ecosystem, Nepal, shared the startup ecosystem in Nepal and what are the possible opportunities how it can collaborate with Northeast India.
Brigadier RK Singh, MD, NEHHDC , Guwahati , also shared the tremendous potential of the South East Asian connect and how it would be great to connect and discuss more in details .
Mr.Suresh Kumar Kandaswamy , edutech and skill startup from Kualalumpur , Malaysia joined and shared about this journey as an entrepreneur in KL and also shared the potential of these markets. Mr.Pranta Khoiram , Sr.Manager , Numaligarh refinery limited spoke about how NRL ideation has been able to support the startups in Northeast India and also working for the startup ecosystem.
Shah Md. Farid , Founder director , Northeast India ASEAN Chamber of Commerce shared how he has been working on this connections for last 20years and how the relationships have grown much better over the years and shared that this is the right time for the Act East .
Sharique Hussain, Sr. VP, Northeast Startup Festival offered the vote of thanks and thanked how the stakeholders have supported in organizing the programme. He also thanked the Industry and Commerce Department, Government of Assam, how the department has been supporting the Northeast Startup Festival from January 2022. He also thanked Act East Policy Department for organizing a programme like Act East through Northeast Programme recently on 27th May2022. Entrepreneurs, startups , professional across various parts of the world joined the programme today.
