Recent developments, both within and beyond India have unfolded the road map to the ‘Look East Policy’ (LEP) formulated by the Government of India, which in a nutshell, place Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura, as India’s gateway to the South East Asian countries for which border trade centres are being developed.
After designating these areas as Free Trade Areas and creating a minimum infrastructure, both the Centre and states have to adopt realistic strategies to form a Growth Triangle or Quadrangle involving neighbouring regions.
Economists had previously emphasized the idea of the “Bay of Bengal Growth Triangle” wherein, it was mooted to involve in joint studies and co-ordinated investment plans to tap the natural resources of the region that includes the Eastern and North eastern states of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and possibly Myanmar.
But, with the signing of the Bangladesh-India-Myanmar-Sri Lanka-Thailand Economic Co-operation (BIMST-EC) agreement, the focus has shifted to this forum.
The subsequent objective of India’s LEP would seek to link up with the booming Southeast Asian economies such as Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the East Asian countries like North and South Koreas.
The two other Asian economic giants-China and Japan- would also play important roles in realizing the goals of the LEP.
In August 1999, the “Kunming Initiative” to promote a growth quadrangle between India, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh was launched at an international conference in Kunming, the Capital of the Yunnan province of China.
As the saying, charity begins at home, first of all, there is need to bring a general consensus and joint strategies among the north eastern states whereby, the LEP would be built on sound economic foundations of the states.
Amid the wrangling for fund from the centre’s Non Lapsable Pool through DoNER and NEC, the stimulus for expanding economic growth to national level is likely to come up against supply bottlenecks due to insufficient infrastructure, entrepreneurship, business-supporting institutions as well as the insurgency which prevails in large parts of the region.
The development strategy followed by the Centre and the State governments of the region has created a totally unbalanced economy in the Northeast.
There are differences among the seven States of the region with respect to their resource endowments, levels of industrialization as well as infrastructural facilities.
On the whole, all these economies are underdeveloped agrarian societies with very weak industrial sectors and inflated service sectors.
These imbalances have led to wide resource deficits even as major portions of resources are spent mainly for maintenance of service sector.
The region lacks good roads such as national highways, which account for only 6% while the national average is 13% .Barring Assam, rail network in other states is much below the desired level.
Another area where Central assistance needs to be examined is in public sector activities. The gross block of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE) worth Rs. 133.18 billion is in the region, mostly in Assam.
This is about 5 per cent of total CPSE assets as well as more than 5 per cent of its employment in India.
Although private capital is no panacea, it is a critical component for economic progress and dynamism. Higher levels of private investment are essential to generate productive employment, raise productivity and improve technology and work culture. (To be continued)
NE may get rail links with Myanmar, Bangladesh
GUWAHATI, JUL 8 (IANS): Northeast may soon have rail connectivity with the neighbouring countries of Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh courtesy an initiative to boost bilateral trade, usher development and tourism in the region.
Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has submitted a field survey report to the Railway Board which envisages connecting NE states, Bihar and West Bengal with neighbouring countries, including Nepal.
The proposed rail lines include Jagboni (Bihar) to Biratnagar (Nepal), New Jalpaiguri (WB) to Kakrabita (Nepal), Hasimara (WB) to Phuentsholing (Bhutan) and Pathsala (Assam) to Namlang (Bhutan).
The other proposed rail links are Rangiya (Assam) to Samdrupjonkhar (Bhutan), Banarhat (WB) to Samtse (Bhutan), Agartala (Tripura) to Akhaura (Bangladesh) and Kokrajhar (Assam) to Geleka (Bhutan).
There are also plan to connect Myanmar through Jiribam and Moreh (Manipur). “The central government had already sanctioned an amount of Rs.493.52 crore for the rail connectivity projects between Jagboni to Biratnagar and Agartala to Akhaura.
We have also started the works regarding the Agartala to Akhaura project”, an NFR official said.
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