[Assam] Look East Policy and development of North East
Chan Mahanta
cmahanta at charter.net
Fri Feb 2 13:00:16 EST 2007
It will be interesting to hear what the powers
that be might have to say about this.
Maybe Hazarika will forward it to the
'hard-hitting' minister to get some answers.But I
won't hold my breath.
>There is nobody to redress.
There never was. And I cannot imagine when it
will be there under the prevailing system.
All the big talk about industries and
entrepreneurship are always from people who never
held a hammer in his life, or ever had to produce
anything to make a living.
At 10:25 PM +0530 2/2/07, mc mahant wrote:
>Look East Policy is yet a farce.
>
>Look what insults/losses I suffered in the last month:
>
>With expensive bank loans I ordered 2 MIG/MAG
>630 Amp Welding Machines ex Tianjin China@ $1510
>FOB.
>
>As I wanted to do some critical construction
>job I asked them to Airfreight the machines to
>L.G.N.B.International Airport,Guwahati via
>Bangkok. No airlines would carry there. So I
>said--via Delhi then(They care for the EAST and
>Care Dearly for the North East!-I THOUGHT).
>
>Only Korean Air will carry the cargo--gross 200
>Kg~ -- and they charged $680. These arrived
>Delhi on 15 January. On one pretext or the
>other("Why are you buying Chinese", "We don't
>accept E-mail" This Print is Hazy"----) these
>were not released till today -after paying 37.5%
>DutyonC.I.F. and "Delayed Collection charges".
>In spite Of "Hon'ble Finance Minister announcing
>Pre-Budget "We are pleased to reduce Duty
>on Capital goods from 10% down t0 5% (on
>FOB).There is nobody to redress.
>NEDFI-DONER-OXOMmp's-Assam Govt-Look East--all
>are Bekaar!
>
>"Look East-" is also copied from Willy Brandt's
>Drang nach Osten(towards USSR) in '70s .
>
>"Look East " will be real only in Sovereign Oxom
>where the main Trade will be from Kakopothar to
>Chengdu in 70 minute hops.
>
>And when bargeloads of Yunnan Phosphorites will
>travel Da-li to Mytkina -to Patkoi-to Luit
>valley daily.
>
>mm
>
>P.S. Pradip -maybe you would copy this to your
>big address list -to whom you posted the original
>
>
>
>
>From: Pradip Kumar Datta <pradip200 at yahoo.com>
>To: love4india at yahoogroups.com,
>assam at assamnet.org,NorthEastIndia
><NorthEastIndia at yahoogroups.com>,neglectedindia at yahoogroups.com,"beautifulindia at yahoogroups.com"
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><national_awareness at yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: [Assam] Look East Policy and development of North East
>Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:28:55 -0800 (PST)
>
>
>Look East Policy and development of North East
>— Rejaul Karim Laskar
>
>
>
>The agreement reached during the fifth
>India-ASEAN Summit held in Cebu, Phillippines on
>January 14, 2007 on the proposed Free Trade
>Agreement– which will be ready by July 2007– is
>a significant achievement of the Look East
>Policy. It is to be hoped that such a free trade
>agreement will open the door to new
>opportunities for the development of North East
>which has been stagnating due to lack of
>economic development for the last six decades.
>With the establishment of India-ASEAN Free Trade
>Area, the North East will no longer be
>handicapped by the Physical inaccessibility from
>the rest of India, the way it has been for the
>past six decades. Rather, it will be the centre
>of this vast Free Trade Area
>which may, in all probability, be one of the
>largest and most dynamic free trade areas of the
>world in the twenty-first century.
>
>Though in the first phase of the ‘Look East
>Policy’ - unveiled by the Narsimha Rao
>Government in the early nineties– the Government
>of India focused on renewing political and
>economic contacts with the countries of East and
>South-East Asia, in the second phase of this
>policy the Government of India is giving special
>emphasis on the economic development of backward
>north eastern region of India taking advantage
>of huge market of ASEAN as well as of the energy
>resources available in some of the member
>countries of ASEAN like Myanmar.
>
>The ‘Look East Policy’ started achieving success
>as early as in 1992. In January 1992, India
>became able to establish the first institutional
>linkage with ASEAN by becoming a sectoral
>dialogue partner of ASEAN in specific areas like
>trade, investment, science and technology and
>training. The institutional
>linkage was upgraded in 1995 when India became a
>full dialogue partner of ASEAN. In 1996 the
>institutional linkage was further upgraded when
>India was admitted in ASEAN Regional Forum
>(ARF)– which deals with security issues and has
>a tremendous clout in Asia Pacific region. India
>also became a founder member of East Asia Summit
>and has participated in both first East Asia
>Summit held in December 2005 and the just
>concluded second East Asia Summit held on
>January 15, 2007. But upgradation of
>institutional linkage with South East Asia is
>not the only benefit of the Look East Policy,
>but more importantly, this policy has led to a
>steady expansion of India’s trade and investment
>links with the East and South East Asia region.
>From a meagre $ 2.5 billion in 1993-94,
>India-ASEAN trade is now more than $21 billion.
>
>But the most important beneficiary of this Look
>East Policy will, obviously be the north eastern
>region of India. In the second phase of the Look
>East Policy
>the Government of India is giving special
>emphasis on the development of North East by
>taking advantage of the physical contiguity of
>this region with the ASEAN. With the admission
>of Myanmar into ASEAN in 1997, North East has
>now become India’s gateway to ASEAN. As the
>process of establishment of India-ASEAN Free
>Trade Area progresses North East will have the
>potential to become the hub of this future
>growth engine of Asia. But, of course, road,
>rail and air linkages will have to be improved
>to realise this potential. This is the reason
>why the Government of India is giving special
>emphasis on improving the road connectivity
>between North East and Myanmar by investing in
>transport infrastructure in North East as well
>as in Myanmar. India and Thailand have also
>planned a trilateral project with Myanmar to
>link the three nations through a road corridor.
>The India-ASEAN car rally held in November 2004
>was also a conscious effort to strengthen the
>road linkages between ASEAN
>and the North East.
>
>The ASEAN-India Partnership for peace, progress
>and shared prosperity pact signed by Prime
>Minister Dr Manmohan Singh with leaders of the
>ASEAN countries at the third India-ASEAN summit
>on Vientine on November 30, 2004, which outlined
>a multi-pronged action plan for boosting trade,
>investment, tourism, culture, sports and people
>to people contact will not only go a long way
>towards economic integration between India and
>ASEAN but will also facilitate development of
>the North East. The plan to ‘build institutional
>linkages for intelligence and information
>sharing, exchange of information and cooperation
>in legal and enforcement matters’ and to
>‘explore developing anti-terrorism cooperation
>and assistance packages covering among others
>immigration control, customs cooperation, land,
>air and sea safety’ will contribute immensely to
>curbing terrorism in North East.
>
>Another dimension of Look East Policy is the Bay of Bengal Initiative for
>Multi-Sectoral Economic and Technological
>Cooperation (BIMSTEC) established in June 1997
>as BIST-EC (Bangladesh-India- Sri Lanka-Thailand
>Economic Co-operation) but renamed as BIMST-EC
>(Bangladesh-India-Myanmar-Sri Lanka-Thailand–
>Economic Co-operation) in December 1997 and
>again renamed as Bay of Bengal Initiative for
>Multi Sectoral Economic and Technological
>Cooperation (BIMSTEC) in July 2004. Presently
>its members are Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri
>Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal. The members
>of this grouping have also been working for
>quite some time for a Free Trade Agreement among
>themselves. But the postponement of the second
>BIMSTEC Summit, which was scheduled to be held
>on February 8, 2007 has given a setback to this
>endeavour. Incidentally, the North East lies at
>the centre of both the proposed India-ASEAN Free
>Trade Area and the BIMSTEC Free Trade Area and
>has the potential to be a hub of these two
>future growth engines of Asia.
>(Source: Assam Tribune 19th January 2007)
>
>
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