00:00I am extremely delighted to inaugurate the Delhi Guwahati, the first of its kind, dedicated air cargo service by Amazon
00:08Air.
00:09It is indeed a very historic day for us and how we are bringing better air cargo connectivity to the
00:15northeast through this activity.
00:16I would like to wholeheartedly congratulate Amazon for taking up this good step.
00:21And in fact, Amazon is one of the strongest e-commerce players not only in the country but across the
00:26world.
00:26Their presence has created a strong ecosystem for small businesses, especially MSMEs, self-help groups in the country to actually
00:34promote and sell their products on e-commerce.
00:37And northeast, if you see, has been the priority focus area for our honorable prime minister, Narendra Modiji.
00:44And under his leadership, in the last 12 years, we have done multiple things, especially in offering better multimodal connectivity
00:52to northeast.
00:53If you look at our airports, in 2014, we used to have 9 airports to northeast.
00:58Today, we have more than 16 airports.
01:00And if you look at the roads, they are happening at much greater speeds in northeast.
01:04And rail network, what is supposed to be impossible under Ashwiniji's strong leadership, we have given a lot of rail
01:11connectivity also.
01:12With a strong multimodal connectivity that has been established in northeast, it is our responsibility to unlock the true cargo
01:20potential.
01:20And now with this air cargo connectivity, we are giving more strength to the ecosystem for perishables, for high valued
01:31products, for agricultural produce and other items which have to be shipped in a very time sensitive manner.
01:38And I think this is going to unlock a great economic opportunity for the northeast itself.
01:44And Amazon also, the way it is doing its operations, the whole economic boost it is giving to these tier
01:502 and tier 3 cities, it is highly appreciatable.
01:53And if you look at the recently presented budget by the government of India, we are also putting special focus
01:59on air cargo.
02:00We are trying to create more infrastructure.
02:02We are trying to create better warehousing systems around the airports so that air cargo network gets a boost.
02:08And also courier exports, which is specifically in the e-commerce area, we are removing the gap on courier exports
02:16also.
02:16So considering this, the vision of our prime minister is to make India a strong, high quality manufacturing market.
02:24We want to create products which are not only for the people of this country, but for people across the
02:29world.
02:29And it is with that reform mode, it is in that mission mode that India is working today.
02:34And people like Amazon bring a lot in assisting us to achieve that at the international level.
02:40And especially if you look at the northeast, for years it was supposed to be a disconnected region.
02:45But today it has become the priority and the strong focus area for the country.
02:51You are seeing a lot of touristic growth happening there.
02:53You are seeing a lot of economic growth happening there, industry growth happening there.
02:57And you can see the transformation right at the individual level and the household level.
03:01And now northeast where you have the seven sister states with this Amazon air connectivity, the cargo connectivity that we
03:09are giving,
03:09each and every state gets strongly connected.
03:12Not only with Delhi or other hubs in the country, but also international destinations also.
03:17There are huge high quality products that northeast is giving us today, where the demand is there for us across
03:24the world.
03:25And it is only how you can connect them to the international markets on capitalizing, on utilizing the whole demand
03:33that it is creating.
03:34There are products like Oodh, which comes from northeast.
03:38There are huge number of agricultural fruits and many other things where there is high demand across the world.
03:44So, this air cargo connectivity is definitely going to boost that.
03:48Focus of the government is also that.
03:50And I am personally very, very happy and excited that this is a service which has been given to northeast.
03:57Northeast is a priority focus area, like I said, for government of India and the Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi
04:03ji.
04:03And I would also like to say that what Amazon has been doing today, the government will continuously support these
04:10kind of activities and will ensure that the last mile connectivity or the grassroot level connectivity to all the people
04:17of the country, air cargo is given in the future also.
04:20And we will also take everyone, all the stakeholders together.
04:23One important thing that we are trying to do in air cargo is also the transshipment area where there were
04:29multiple challenges being faced by the stakeholders earlier.
04:32We are trying to get some reforms done so that the ease of doing air cargo business is also there.
04:38So, the approach of the government is very, very clear.
04:40The stakeholders are very excited and very confident that India is the most stable and progressive and very strong future
04:48growth related markets that are going to happen.
04:52So, with all taking all this, I am very sure that India is going to emerge as one of the
04:57strongest air cargo manufacturing, high quality, loyal manufacturing destinations in the world.
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