Why doesn't India connect Nepal , Bhutan and Bangladesh to form a trade line.

[A.V.]

The smaller indian neighbours namely NEPAL , BHUTAN and bangladesh is being wooed by CHINA , india has to dela with cheap chinese products in these regions and losing out on market share.

Plus a lot of international trouble is created when india,s own backyard becomes too close to chinese regime.


Bangladesh has been asking for it and so is nepal .

Why dosnet india make a free trade zone to connect BANGLADESH , NEPAL AND BHUTAN through india ., india stands to gain and these smaller neighbours stop looking towards china.


India should take advantage of this situation and think about it as soon as possible.

Whats your thoughts on this.

 

[ejazr]

I think there is already consensus on making this operational. We have transit deals with all these countries but its a matter of making the infrastructure capable of handling the traffic. Roads and Railways need to be upgraded and even rebuilt in many areas.

This could then be basis of improving trade and connectivity in the BIMSTEC region overall where India would play a major role as the biggest market. Infact, BIMSTEC might be more sucessful than SAARC given that Pakistan would not be involved in it.


Here is a good article on how Indo-Bangaldeshi ties could lead to the formation of a strong BIMSTEC grouping.

N Chandra Mohan: From Bangladesh to Bimstec

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's maiden foreign tour seven years ago was for a summit meeting of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Co-operation (Bimstec) in Bangkok. That tour has a connection with his visit today to Bangladesh. This trip bids fair to become a game-changer for two ideas whose time hasn't come yet: a larger Bay of Bengal grouping and South Asian regional integration which has only animated endless rounds of summitry.

India had sought to participate in regional groupings like Bimstec since the 1990s owing to the frustratingly slow progress over the South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation (Saarc), thanks to tensions between India and Pakistan. This necessitated a highly innovative bit of strategising that got over the sticky problem of including countries like Nepal while excluding Pakistan. Bimstec, thus, equalled Saarc minus Pakistan with Myanmar and Thailand thrown in for good measure!

But this Bay of Bengal grouping hardly made any progress. An important reason was the absence of connectivity, among other factors. Unless the various member countries were linked through road, rail, air and shipping services, freer trade would be sub-optimal. Connectivity meant providing landlocked Nepal with transit facilities to use the ports of Mongla and Chittagong in Bangladesh. Connectivity with Thailand entails establishing road, rail and other linkages traversing Bangladesh and Myanmar.

India will now have better access to its north-eastern states, where south-east Asia really begins. It has proposed to Myanmar that it would rebuild the Sittwe Port and make the Kaladan river navigable to provide alternative access into Mizoram and the north-east. Dr Singh's visit is expected to result in a forward movement in all these aspects since Bangladesh has agreed to provide seamless connectivity between Nepal, Bhutan and India and to extend it to Myanmar and the other countries rimming the Bay of Bengal.
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[A.V.]

Thanks ejaz , a great article but the delay in acting is what baffles me , already china has made a headstart and we are lagging , we should compile a solid paper work with perks and incentives and turn the tables on the chinese approach towards indian neighbourhood.

 

[agentperry]

its been done nower days. the treaties and all with bd and the approval for using Indian territory for transport of material from bhutan nepal to bd and vice versa is a step in same direction. moreover India is funding multimodal transport project in myanmar which is going on in full speed. this will eliminate bd from north east mainland equation as the man and material can then be readily transported thru inland water route. asian highway from singapore to India is also going on in right direction but slow. India till now has funded myanmar part of highway and has completed its due part. the other nation contribution is also high.

 

[SLASH]

let first concentrate on our own road and rail networks.