GUWAHATI, Oct 31: Chief Ministers from the seven northeastern States today met in New Delhi to take part in a meeting called by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to develop the North-east with special emphasis on the “Look East Policy”.
Pranab Mukherjee underlined the importance of the subject of the meeting. While this policy has yielded many benefits, including closer and strategic ties between India and the South-east Asian countries, an impressive increase in the quantum of bilateral trade and increased people-to-people interaction, the need to focus the benefits of this cooperation more sharply on the northeastern region, which is a natural bridge between India and the South-East Asian countries.
The meeting was chaired by Pranab Mukherjee and was attended by Union Ministers Mani Shankar Aiyar, Shivraj Patil, P Chidambaram, AK Antony, TR Baalu, Jayram Ramesh and Ashwini Kumar.
Text of Gogoi’s speech: Today, it surprises one to find Asom in pre-industrial stage. The State today experiences unique economic problems arising out of remoteness and poor connectivity, weak financial resource base, poor infrastructure, shallow markets and natural calamities shattering the entire economy of the State from time to time. In 1947, Asom was the State with the second highest per capita income in the country but has slipped a number of steps backward in the last six decades owing to these reasons. Though we have been investing enough funds from the State Plan and other resources, the situation is still not satisfactory. From the funds received from the Ministry of DoNER, we have invested 11 per cent of the total approved cost in the power sector and 37 per cent in the road sector. The funds received from NEC, to the extent of 18 per cent are utilized for the development of roads. For the 11th plan period, 9.8 per cent of the plan outlay is proposed for power development and 13.7 per cent for the development of communication. On the other hand, the 11th plan outlay provides for 21 per cent for agriculture and allied activities, including irrigation and flood protection.
Imprisoned within a closed space, this region had been subjected to various limitations by the country’s internal security as well as foreign policy. Not to speak of direct foreign investment, even in the early few years of liberalization of economy of India, a foreign tourist had to obtain a restricted area permit and he was allowed to move only around the spot or area where he was permitted to visit. A foreigner visiting his family members working in this part of the country had to confine only to the premises of the family member’s house. A group of tourists visiting the State or the North-east could not cross the numbers as specified by the Government. The Centre’s new industrial policy (NEIIP- 2007) and the Look East Policy seek to open doors to domestic and international investors and thereby endeavour to boost up the economy of Asom and the North-east through international trade and business by removing trade barriers, opening the frontiers and providing road, rail and air connectivity. These will certainly remove the geo-political isolation of the State from the rest of the country. For us in the North-East region, the Look East Policy is perceived as the only hope for breaking out of isolation. Considering the near deadlock in the WTO, our hopes lie in regional cooperation with our neighbouring South-east Asian countries.
We do have existing arrangement whereby some items are exported/imported to and from Bangladesh through both river and land routes. Present scale of operations are not attractive enough for private sector to create world-class facilities. Considering the need to promote trade from the northeastern States, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had appointed a Task Force on connectivity and promotion of trade and investment in the regions. The task force has given very important recommendations. Our hopes of developing vibrant trade and commerce will be belied unless we work in tandem with foreign policy interventions and put in place-required infrastructure and trade-friendly procedures and practices. Given the time constraint, I would like to place the following for immediate attention.1. Development of connectivitya.
Development of ASEAN highway: The road connection to South-east Asian countries is also available along ASEAN highway network that can be accessed from the existing NH 39 and NH-36 of Asom through the Dimapur-Kohima-Imphal road to reach Myanmar at the border town of Moreh. This needs to be developed expeditiously.
b. Development of NH-153 (Stillwell Road): Reopening of the Stillwell Road linking the region to Kunming, the capital of Yunan Province of China, through Myanmar will greatly boost economy and trade activities from the region to South-east Asian countries. The Myanmar portion of this Highway needs to be developed so that plywood and other timber-based industries of upper Asom can be revived. The Stillwell Road should also be hooked to the Trans-Asian highway at Mea-Sot on the Thailand border.
c. Connectivity to Bhutan and Tibet: The NH-152 from the State is a direct link to the Royal Kingdom of Bhutan. The NH-152 is being developed as a two-lane highway at present. Therefore, there is ample scope of establishing good road connectivity from Bhutan and beyond, to the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) which will open up trade and commerce and other new economic activities.
d. Connectivity to Bangladesh through NH-51, NH-40, NH-151 and NH-44: The Northeastern region has three distinct national highways connecting the capital city of Bangladesh — Dhaka. The routes are: the Guwahati-Jorabat-Shillong-Dauki-Sylhet-Dhaka, the Guwahati-Jorabat-Shillong-Karimganj-Sutarkadi-Sylhet-Dhaka and the Guwahati-Paikan-Dalu.
Development of the above routes will be very beneficial for international trade and commerce, industry, and will also create new employment opportunities. e. Connectivity with Tibetan Autonomous Region: The NH-52 connects the north bank of the Brahmaputra with Arunachal Pradesh. This road can be further developed and extended to the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
f. Improvement of Railway connectivity from the northeastern region to neighbouring countries: The possibility of having broad gauge railway connectivity with Bangladesh through Golokganj in the State may be explored for economic reasons. The three railway networks — the NEFR of India, North Railway of Myanmar and West Railway of Yunnan are closest to each other at Ledo (Asom), Myitkyina (Myanmar) and Dali (China). These three networks can be linked to each other by building Myanmar-India Railway and Unnan-Myanmar Railway, the former one from Myitkyina to Ledo, being about 480-km long, and the later one from Dali of Yunnan to Myitkyina of Myanmar, being about 520-km long.
g. Development of Brahmaputra waterways: The Brahmaputra (NW-2) and Ganga (NW-1) are interconnected through waterways in Bangladesh and the Sunderban providing an integrated waterway of 3,650 km from Allahabad in UP to Sadiya in Asom. An Inland Water transit and trade protocol exists between India and Bangladesh. The existing protocol is extended from time to time in ad hoc manner. There is need to have a long-term protocol which will enable the development of required infrastructure of vessels and night navigation devices etc. by private sector.Silghat in Asom is likely to be declared as a port of call for evacuation of petroleum products from the Numaligarh Refinery, and destined for Bangladesh. In return, Bangladesh should declare Ashuganj as a port of call.
h. Development of airways: Creation of air circuit between Asom as well as the North-east and Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore and China will help increase export and tourism from the State. Some of the international flights can introduce stop-overs at Guwahati and some of the flights can be extended to Kunming and Yangon from Guwahati.
i. IT and Telecom: Guwahati city needs to be projected as ITES and IT gateway for which world-class IT infrastructure is the need of the hour. The present gateway at Kolkata is extremely busy, and for better connectivity, another gateway in the North-east, preferably at Guwahati having linkage with the South-east Asian countries, directly, is desirable.
2 Development of infrastructure within the northeastern region: While the connectivity with the region is developed, a number of other activities would be require to be undertaken to develop infrastructure within the region.
a. To begin with, an assessment of the export potential of the region will have to be made through a planned market survey in the neighbouring countries as well as the export potential of the northeastern States. The identified export potential will have to be developed and utilized.
Capacity building for entrepreneurs, who will be involved in import-export business, is of importance, and steps should be taken to provide facilities for the same.b. Critical road/bridges connectivity from export-oriented units to the nearest national highway/river port will be required to be developed. To develop the Tezpur-Tawang tourist circuit, a shorter cut road from Tezpur to Tawang could be developed. Connectivity to all the important places of tourist interest could be developed with the main air, railway and road networks.
c. These units will also required stable and quality power supply for which necessary infrastructure to augment existing generation, transmission, distribution will be required. Government of India should allocate adequate quantity of power from the upcoming hydro projects in Bhutan to Asom as a mechanism of regional resource sharing.
d. Considering the immense scope for export of medicinal herbs, processed food and adequate facilities for research and development will be required for efficient utilization of agro-resources.
e. Necessary trading infrastructure in terms of opening of custom stations at various locations will be required. The existing land custom stations at Sutarkandi, Mankachar and Daranga need to be upgraded and the phase-II proposal of Sutarkandi submitted by the Government should be approved. Moreh in Manipur needs to be operationalized and the law-and-order situation there needs to be made conducive for trading.f. Issue of declaration of Ashuganj as a port of call should be taken up with Bangladesh.Meghalaya Chief Minister Dr DD Lapang highlighted that Meghalaya was the only State which had conducted a public debate to decide the priorities of the State under the Look East Policy on September 23 this year.Dr Lapang stressed the need to build close historical and cultural ties between the people of the North-east and the South-east Asian people. Dr Lapang spoke of the potentially adverse effects of economic isolation, of inadequate infrastructure and lack of markets for primary commodities, industrial products and surplus agricultural produce.He also referred to the positive outcome of his participation in the Investment Opportunities Week held at Bangkok, and the fact that Meghalaya was able to project itself as a peaceful, vibrant and investor-friendly State. He said it is important that the perspective of the people, and their needs and aspirations are considered. Care should be taken to ensure that the free trade agreement does not affect the interest of the northeastern region adversely, he added.For Meghalaya, the immediate areas of international interface is with Bangladesh, Dr Lapang said, adding that infrastructure for trade was, however, inadequate and must be augmented.He urged the Centre to help transform the national highways and roads, and to upgrade airports at Umroi and Baljek. He suggested that the alternative rail route, skirting the southern border of Meghalaya, should be taken up for survey.Dr Lapang also spoke of the growing horticultural activity in the State, and the potential for tourism, as areas of opportunity. He said that tourism would benefit from doing away with restrictive practices for foreign tourists, such as the reporting requirements on arrival. He asked for a diversification of cultural interface, through visits of cultural troupes, and the opening of a tourist office at Dhaka. On a positive note, he said that the State Government had taken steps to establish a single-point interface for potential foreign investors and for trade-related queries.He suggested that the Centre intensify efforts to commence bus services from Shillong to Dhaka and from Tura to Mymensingh, and provide transit access through Bangladesh for our produce and our imports as well as open a visa office at Shillong. He asked for the reopening of border haats.The Chief Minister spoke strongly of the need to improve our infrastructure, especially roads, and referred to the new power policy of the State which would improve prospects of attracting investment in this sector. On roads, the Chief Minister urged the Centre to accelerate the upgrade of highways and major roads, and to take the railway line along the border and also up to Shilling and Tura.He also strongly advocated the need to set up a centre of excellence for linguistics at Shillong where South-east Asian languages, along with English, can be taught. This can become an excellent centre of international studies drawing response from all the northeastern States and the South-east Asian countries.
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