Bhubaneswar, Nov 14: Along with the Boita Bandana, which is the annual maritime festival of Odisha, a three-day Kalinga Indonesia dialogue will start from today in order to once again bring back the historical and cultural links between Odisha and Indonesia.
There would be politicians, scholars and researchers from all over Odisha who would be seen discussing with the south-east Asian nation about the future prospects of cooperation in different sectors. Odisha CM, Naveen Patnaik will inaugurate the dialogue at Rabindra Mandap. The organizers of the show are the Kalinga Lanka Foundation in association with Indian Council of Cultural Relations, department of culture and Ravenshaw University.
It’s stated that around 40 speakers would grace the occasion by speaking on various aspects including trade and investment, culture, maritime trade and security cooperation between Odisha and Indonesia at different seminars held at Ravenshaw in Cuttack. These 40 speakers include oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan, governor S C Jamir, ambassador of Indonesia to India Rizali Indrakesuma and BJD MP Baijayant Panda.
Lalit Mansingh, former ambassador to US, high commissioner to UK and chairman of the Kalinga Indonesia dialogue said that this dialogue is not intended to be a journey into nostalgia or past revelry. On the contrary, the rich common heritage of both regions will act as a backdrop for discussions on reconnecting the threads and to establish future collaborations. He further added that Odisha is taken to be a place which is perfectly located. Indonesia as well has vast reserves on minerals and energy and can therefore be a principal partner to Odisha in mining sector. Education, IT and textiles are the most-promising sectors. Huge investments are planned in both Odisha and Indonesia to boost maritime infrastructure, which would lead to possible business transactions.
An official said that the fields in which collaboration would be initiated between Odisha and Indonesia would be IT, telecommunications, finance, education, health, hospitality, travel and tourism, construction and transportation. Similarly there is also a huge scope for joint ventures in food processing, furniture, gems and jewellery, agro-biotech, textiles and wood crafts.
