New Delhi: A meeting of the NITI Forum for North East organized in Manipur on Tuesday outlined five development missions for promoting sectors like horticulture, tourism and food processing in the region. Other missions will cover bamboo-based handicrafts and medium scale industries with focus on ‘Make in North-East’.

NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar said that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to establish a regional NITI Aayog forum for the north eastern states, adding that a regional forum for Himalayan and Coastal states will be set up soon.

“These regional forums will bring synergy among states and help them solve their problems which cannot be solved by one state,” he noted.

There has been outflow of resources of North East to other parts of India, he said adding that states in the region “must bring back not only its resources but also additional resources. For this, we will have to create more employment opportunities.”

There is a challenge to bring North East region into mainstream and the central government is working to connect it to the rest of India, Kumar insisted.

“To make North East more familiar in the rest of India, one emporium should be set up in all the districts of the country so that people can know about the products of the region,” he suggested.

The focus of development projects in the region will be based on the concept of “HIRA”, as spelt out by the Prime Minister, he said.

The acronym HIRA stands for Highways, Internet ways, Railways and Airways, he said, adding that the emphasis will also be on education, health and skill development in the region.