India offers transit and power to Bangladesh

[Yusuf]

Amen TR. But it's a little wishful thinking right now. The deal with BD has just been signed. Hope it materializes well. Pakistan can be left out for now in this whole thing. It's not a favorable environment right now. We need to get Nepal ans SL into our fold and strongly at that. Once we have the rest of the sub continent prospering due to favorable business policies with India, Pakistan can then decide if it wants to continue to bleed India through a thousand cuts or wants to earn from the thousands of oppurtunities that exists.

 

[ajay_ijn]

I am happy that we have all these agreements, but why does India need access to the Ashuganj and Chittagong ports? We already have Calcutta, Haldia and Paradip. Is this for access for Nepal and Bhutan? That would make sense.

I think India has already granted Nepal dedicated access to the Vizag port though of course Chittagong port will be nearer.

North east is more closer to Bangladesh, Burma or Bhutan than rest of India. besides the infrastructure is so bad in north east which inturn causes delays in transporting goods, So reducing the distance between land-locked north-east and Port saves lot of time & money.

Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland can benifit even more. Just by looking at the map we can see how close they are to Chittagong or Sittwe and so far awar from Kolkatta.

But Roads and Rail connections to Port have to built and maintained well.

 

[ajay_ijn]

it is good to see the sub-continent is coming off age. the age of immaturity, suspicion of each others motives, painting the other as a villain, and pointless rhetoric are probably becoming a thing of past, or so one hopes.

if any thing this move on bangladesh's part has to be interlinked with a similar endeavor being enacted with pakistan as well. india has been negotiating a freight transit through pakistan to afghanistan, iran, car, and possibly eu, and in return offering the same facility to pakistan to move their goods through india to bangladesh, nepal, bhutan and in the long run asean, and on a similar front allow a two way trade between all these countries through each others land scape. on a similar note bangladesh is being allowed transit to nepal and bhutan.

the cabinet of pakistan has given an in principle approval to pakistani goods moving through india to our neighbors and it is hoped they will also grant a similar approval to our goods being allowed to move through their country.

if this whole project is allowed to move ahead without certain vested interests having a say on the matter who would like to see the sub continent be engulfed in a spat of fire, then there is a lot to gain economically for the subcontinent as also we could possibly develop some sort of a much needed trust factor. the cost benefits are going to be huge and because of this possibly the fdi from each others countries in the near future will become a reality, rather than the same be turned away in the name of security concerns.

who says saarc does not work and safta wont be a possibility, hopefully the day when safta becomes a reality, is not far off.

not just security concerns but political relations have to be stable for sustained trade growth or investment exchnage. just an year before becaue of Mumbai attacks, all the hope for growing trade was completely lost.

just looking at an decade back will indicate the disputed, conflicts, tensions. which Indian or Pakistan company will invest in such situation.
2008- Mumbai blasts, tensions
2001- Parliament attack and Indo-Pak standoff, tensions
1999- Kargil, tensions

if you take the case of Iran or China. they offer tempting resources, returns, potential for any businessman or investor. Iran has lots of oil and gas while China is a economic giant with best returns possible, excellent infrastructure, cheap labour, good business environment etc. So despite any security concerns or disputes, Indian Govt readily engages with them forgetting all about political situation, and so does a business man. It other words, its worth taking risk.

Unfortunately Pakistan has no such long term economic strength/potential which makes it a really great investment destination. Instead it has high risks of economic, fiscal stability, political stability and lots of security concern.

even doing cross border trade with them involves lot of risks including the risk of defaulting on payments.