Former diplomat asks NE to avail benefit of Look East Policy

Agartala, Sep 8 (UNI) Former Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to USA Lalit Man Singh has urged the north eastern states to harness the maximum benefit of the Centre's 'Look East Policy' to meet the challenges of under-development and backwardness.

Delivering the keynote address in the International Seminar on 'Northeast India a Gateway to Southeast Asia, its Prospects for Infrastructure Development, National and International Perspectives' here last evening, Mr Man Singh said the region had played a vital role during pre-independence because of its strategic position.

The three day Seminar was organised by the Institution of Engineers (India) Agartala Local Centre.

''The Look East Policy is nothing but reopening trade opportunities with Southeast Asian nations using north east as a corridor,'' Mr Man Singh said adding that Tripura and Manipur were the main suppliers of Cassia (Tejpata) and raw silk to the Mughal Empire.

The gap between the NE region and the rest of the country was due to prolonged negligence of the Centre coupled with ethnic conflict and poverty, he opined.

''This is a challenge to the leaders of the region to turn terrorism into tourism and poverty into prosperity, as India is now one of four summit level partners with China, Japan and Korea of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN),'' he underlined.

He said trade between India and ASEAN countries had expanded significantly following signing of the Free Trade Area(FTA) agreements with Thailand and Singapore. There were plans to create a free trade area with Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia by 2011 and with the remaining ASEAN countries like Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam by 2016, he said.

''There are a number of structures of sub-regional cooperation in place including the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) and BIMST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation),'' he pointed out.

Outside of ASEAN, bilateral trade between India and China was improved significantly and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's proposal for an Asian economic community to include ASEAN, China, Japan, Korea and India,generated significant excitement in past years, the diplomat added.

Besides, Mr Man Singh, DoNER Secretary, Ms Susma Singh, Member (Planning) and Ex-officio Additional Secretary V S Verma, former President of Institution of Engineers (India) and Highway expert C R Alimchandi and delegates from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Philippines participated in the seminar.

Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, after inaugurating the conference, urged the Centre to come forward for the development of the NE region. He said India's foreign policies should be executed keeping the north east perspective in mind.

UNI