Dake was speaking at the EU-India economic cross-cultural programme seminar attended by partners Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Maharashtra Centre for Entreprenuership Development, Formaper (Special Agency of the Milan Chamber of Commerce) and WIFI Osterreich (Austrian Institute for the Promotion of Economic Development.

Emphasizing the importance of the project entitled "Entrepreneurship in culturalisation: Networking for Global Opportunities and Development in Austria, India and Italy," Dake said that his government was committed to a balanced development of the state.

Dake emphasised the importance of agro-basedindustries and the need for strengthening the cottage, village and small industries in addition to the large-scale industries.

To attract investment to backward areas, 1,166 enterprises had been started with a foreign direct investment of Rs 21,461 crore, he said.

He also announced that a large number of IEM's had been filed till July 1998 with an investment of Rs 1,28,428 crore which would create employment for 11,87674 lakh people in the state.

In the SSI sector, he mentioned that upto September 1998, 1,40,304 units had been established creating 7 lakh employment.

The minister also underlined the importance of the EU-India cross cultural programme in promoting ties between India, Italy and Austria particularly in the field of transfer and upgradation of technology, which were important in the present global scenario.

The guest of honour at the function, P Cooney, CIRPS, the management agency of the EU-India Economic Cross Cultural Programme, said this programme was among a series of initiativeslaunched by the EU in Asia to address the issue of mutual understanding and respect for different cultures. The pre-requisite for long-lasting relations between India and Europe, he stated, was an exchange of knowledge, know-how and overcoming of division and conflict. He said, this project would be a model for other schemes to follow.

S Hlawacek, director of WIFI from Austria spoke about the strength of his institute which has been in existence in Austria for the past 50 years and in part owes its strength to the fact, that in Austria, companies have to mandatorily become members of chambers of commerce.

He said, his institute offered 20,000 differnt types of seminars and training programmes to 2,70,000 participants every year. It offered consultancy services to 300,000 companies and also organised the participation of Austrian companies in 130 different international fairs and exhibitions. He also stated that WIFI had offered considerable management traisning and expertise to the east and centralEuropean countries, to South Africa and Palestine.