Piyush Goyal encourages startups to collaborate with BIMSTEC nations; sees huge potential

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday stated that collaboration between Indian startups and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries would lead to growth and prosperity in the neighbourhood. He asked Indian investors to engage with the BIMSTEC nations with investment, mentoring, and support to build a larger ecosystem for startups in the region.

“There is a huge potential in the collaboration because we will see new ideas prospering and young minds working together to come up with new ideas, new innovations, new inventions,” Goyal said. “Startup to startup collaboration has a huge potential because with this new idea will prosper and young minds will come together to work collectively,” he added. 

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Goyal was inaugurating the Startup India International Summit, Prarambh, which witnessed the participation of startups from seven BIMSTEC countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India.

The Union minister said that he had been asking New Delhi to encourage and support the Indian startups at an early stage, but now would request Indian investors to look towards the BIMSTEC startups also to mentor and support them.

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PM Modi to address international summit

The Prarambh: Startup India International Summit is being organized by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on January 15-16. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with startups and address the global summit on Saturday.

The two-day summit is being organized as a follow-up of the announcement made by the prime minister at the fourth BIMSTEC Summit held in Kathmandu in August 2018 wherein India committed to hosting the BIMSTEC Startup Conclave. The summit marks the fifth anniversary of the Startup India initiative, launched by the prime minister on January 16, 2016.

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With participation from over 25 countries and more than 200 global speakers, the summit will be the largest startup confluence organized by the Government of India since the launch of the Startup India initiative. It will witness 24 sessions with a focus on enhancing multilateral cooperation and engagement with countries from around the globe to collectively develop and strengthen the startup ecosystems, it said. 

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(with inputs from agencies)