Date:16/01/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/01/16/stories/2005011601240500.htm

Back Govt looking at establishing rail connectivity with Asean nations

Our Bureau

Kolkata , Jan. 15

ENCOURAGED by the success of the recent Asean car rally covering about 8,000 km of roads in India and other nine Asean countries, the Union Government is seriously looking at establishing rail connectivity with all the Asean countries.

This was indicated by Mr C.M. Bhandari, Additional Secretary in the Union Ministry of External Affairs.

Speaking at the CII-organised plenary session on "Asean and India: Beyond the road show", Mr Bhandari said that the recent car rally had established the fact that the northeastern region of the country was not all that land-locked.

The Government has thus decided to accelerate developmental activities in the northeastern States to tap markets in the Asean countries.

He said the establishing rail connectivity would not be a big problem once 300 km of hilly terrain between India and Myanmar was completed.

The rail link among Asean countries had to be accorded top priority in the interest of rapid economic development in this region.

He was confident that insurgency movements in the north eastern States of the country could be resolved, paving way for closer economic cooperation between India and the Asean region.

Mr Pradeep Menon, Executive Director of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the volume of trade between India and Asean was fast expanding as against India's lukewarm trade relationships with the region some 10 years ago.

The volume of annual trade between India and Asean countries has now touched $15 billion. He was confident that the volume would double by 2010 if rational trade policies are adopted by all countries in this region.

He said Singapore has benefited with the increasing inflow of Indian tourists to that country. The number of Indian tourists in 2004 crossed over 4,00,000, and this number was expected to double in the next few years.

He said Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, by virtue of their competence, could help develop India's IT-related service sector.

Incidentally, a total of 1,400 branch offices had already been opened in Singapore by Indian business houses, while Singapore was the 8th largest investor in India.