INDIA: Need to Promote Regional Connectivity to Promote India – Mekong Economic Cooperation: Salman Khurshid To enhance India – Mekong Economic Cooperation, Mr. Salman Khurshid, Minister of External Affairs highlighted the need to improve connectivity between India and the Mekong region. Mr. Khurshid was speaking at a Conference on “Promoting Mekong India Economic Cooperation” jointly organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here today. The Mekong countries include Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. The Minister stressed the importance of stepping up the level of infrastructure financing in all the countries of the region to promote connectivity in terms of land, maritime and air. He requested ADB and other multilateral institutions to step up their engagement with the region in this regard. He pointed out that the trade between India and the Mekong region grew from USD 2 billion to USD 17.4 billion over the past decade thereby recording a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 25%. It is with this in mind, he termed the Mekong – India Economic Cooperation as a win-win proposition. He felt that the Delhi – Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) could be a good model to follow whereby industrial development is being promoted all along the entire stretch of the corridor. He was of the view that to promote business ties between the India and the Mekong region countries, there is a need for all countries to ease the process of issuance of visas as well as to grant longer validity for business purposes. He also requested that all the countries concerned need to ensure that there is mutual recognition of professional qualification to promote further growth of services trade. He also pointed out that India and ASEAN would conclude the FTA in Services shortly and this would pave the way for the negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). In his address, Mr. Pan Sorasak, Secretary of State, Ministry of Commerce, Cambodia stated that Cambodia is looking forward to cooperation with India. He stressed on the complementarities between India and Cambodia. Cambodia has water, land and other resources while India has the capital, technology and management expertise. He felt that this combination could result in greater bilateral cooperation. He also highlighted the large pool of skilled manpower in India which Cambodia can take advantage of Mr. Nguyen Cam Tu, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam in his address stressed the importance of multimodal transport systems in connecting India and the other countries in the region. He felt that to improve the management of the Mekong India Economic Corridor, there is a need to adopt ICT and GPS based logistics systems. In addition to improving physical connectivity, he was of the view that trade facilitation measures like customs integration, simplification of procedures etc. needed to be carried out in all the countries. While addressing the conference, Mr. S Gopalakrishnan, President, CII stated that in order to take advantage of the enormous opportunity presented by the Mekong countries, India needed to strengthen its manufacturing base. He also suggested that India and Mekong countries could cooperate in areas such as healthcare, IT and education among others. Earlier in his welcome address, Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII stated that India and the Mekong region have had long historical linkages. He pointed out that that the Mekong region is critical for India in light of its Look East Policy initiated in 1992. In this context, he felt that the trade target of US$ 100 billion by 2015 was indeed significant and achievable. The conference was attended by over 175 delegates with around 50 delegates from the Mekong countries. Amongst the issues discussed at the conference were “Trade Facilitation and Trade Finance”, “Energy Security and Power Trade and “Financing Regional Infrastructure”.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 11:16:24 +0000