The Hindu Business Line : ‘India’s Look-East policy must first look at North-East’

The June 21-25 visit to Agartala, Guwahati and Shillong by the Minister of Commerce of Thailand, Mr Krirk-krai Jirapaet, along with a high-level business delegation, has sparked a lot of interest for mutual cooperation between Thailand and some of the north-eastern States.

Linking up a foreign country and a group of States is thanks to the interest and effort of the Union Minister for Development of North-Eastern Region, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, who also interacted with the Thai Minister.

While the opportunities abound for sharing the experience and expertise of Thailand — a country that attracts 11 million tourists a year against just 2 million by India — areas such as food processing, hydro power and infrastructure development were identified for initiating a plan of action.

The Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, who also interacted with the Thai Minister, took some time off his busy schedule to speak to Business Line in Guwahati. Mr Ramesh set forth his ideas for an integrated developme nt of the North-East so that the region, for long the beneficiary of the Union Government’s largesse, would really usher in a phase of growth with equity.

On relations with Bangladesh

“This is the first time, an initiative has been taken to involve the ASEAN grouping in India’s North-East. I think Mr Aiyar is right that South-East Asia begins in North- East India. I have also been suggesting for some time that for India’s North-East, the future lies in emotional and political integration with the rest of India and economic integration with the rest of Asia. So the North-East will have to work on two legs and we have to do some creative thinking because we have a problem with Bangladesh.

“I have been advocating closer economic engagement with Dhaka, but it takes two hands to clap … Much as I wish to address our concerns with Bangladesh, I have been publicly saying that we should remove this absurd ban on foreign direct investment (FDI) from Bangladesh. We are pushing for a $3-billion investment in Bangladesh by the Tata group, and I know for a fact that there are Bangladeshi entrepreneurs in textiles, pharmaceuticals and food processing who are interested in making investments in India, particularly in the North-East. I think it is absurd the way we deal with Bangladesh on economic issues.

“There cannot be a better votary for economic engagement with Bangladesh than me but at the same time I recognise that anti-Indianism is a very important political plank just as anti-Americanism is an important political plank in India. So we have to look innovative solutions for the North East.”

Myanmar Port

“We are looking at Myanmar very seriously. We have proposed to the Myanmar government that India will rebuild the Settwe Port — the old Akyab port. We made a proposal — Build-Transfer-Use (BTU) — a new project, rebuilding the Settwe port and making the Kaladan river navigable which gives us an alternative access into Mizoram and the North-East. So the North-East will then be integrated via Settwe into India and it will also have integration with the rest of South-East Asia.

“I feel that we need to look into institutional innovation. We have BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation), involving Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal, and SAFTA (SAARC Free Trade Area). Why can’t we think of a new economic grouping within BIMSTEC, of India’s North-East, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand?

“There might be security concerns but India is so huge and it dominates not just by demographic numbers but by the ability to speak English fluently in any grouping. So why do we not think of the North-East as one economic entity?”

Kunming Initiative

“Sometime ago, the Chinese Government had proposed the Kunming initiative — an economic integration of Yunnan Province, Myanmar, India, North-East India and Bangladesh—a sort of sub-regional grouping in a larger regional trading agreement. Similarly we can think of a regional grouping of Tibet, Sikkim, Bhutan and Bengal. The larger framework is nation-state and within this we must have smaller grouping — this does not erode our political sovereignty in any way. The North-East still remains part of India. It is in this context that the imitative of Mr Aiyar is to be lauded. The Thai Commerce Minister saw for himself what is feasible — in the area of food processing in particular a lot is possible and in tourism.

“Infrastructure in the North-East must undergo major transformation — connectivity has to improve. No doubt, airline connectivity has improved but there is more to connectivity than flights.

“India’s Look East Policy has to look North-East first. Today, one-third of India’s trade volume is with South-East Asia which has emerged the largest trading partner with India but it has had no impact on the country’s North-East. India’s Look East policy is meaningless if it does not have any impact on the region.

“The tragedy is that our economic engagement with South-East Asia has expanded, but not to the advantage of the North-East. Benefits to the North-East must be tangible in any free trade agreements with ASEAN, Thailand or Singapore; the North-East should be a fundamental element in these FTAs.

“I have suggested to the Prime Minister and to the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman that we need new ways of project implementation — extensive use of rubber-cum-pineapple plantation on the Indo-Bangladesh border, for instance, has found favour with both the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister. It is such small things that, done well, will have a demonstrable impact. Ultimately, a series of small steps well executed will make the difference — today, in the North-East we have a larger number of projects benefiting politicians, civil servants, contractors and their lobbies in Delhi. They are not benefiting the people of the North-East.”

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