Of AEP, gateway and redundancy
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 05 2019 -

Frankly speaking, the much hyped India’s Act East Policy (earlier Look East Policy) is becoming redundant.

It has been more than 30 years since the Look/Act East Policy was formulated during the Prime Ministership of late PV Narasimha Rao. Undoubtedly, the North East region is central to the Act East Policy but the policy after more than 30 years of its formulation has failed to bring any changes in the region.

In fact, the policy has failed to take off. Infrastructural issues and connectivity problems persist to this day more or less to the same degree.

The situation sounds paradoxical if one juxtaposes this reality with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent announcement that the North East region is set to become a gateway to South East Asia.

At an event held at Bangkok on November 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Once the India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway is opened, there would be seamless connectivity between the two countries (India and Thailand)”.

Another incident which fired the imagination of the people of the whole North East region was when Mr Modi coined a new acronym for the region ‘New Engine’.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “NE will not be known as North East anymore, but New Engine — for the new engine which will drive India’s economy forward.”

All these announcements and acronyms sound rather flamboyant and bombastic if one takes into account the ground reality.

The North East region still remains quite backward in all aspects of socio-economic development parameters.

Yes, many development projects including construction and expansion of roads are being implemented across the region but they are too little and too late.

For too long, the Government of India neglected the region and blamed the region’s underdevelopment on its geographical features such as land-lockedness, hilly terrain, remoteness etc.

But the whole notion about the North East region underwent a dramatic change once New Delhi mandarins realized the necessity to engage with ASEAN countries economically and politically.

This was glaringly reflected when Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about Act East Policy, India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway, India-ASEAN partnership et al, at Bangkok.

Suddenly, the region’s highly disadvantageous location became a hotspot of opportunities.

In another word, there was a disconnect in New Delhi’s policy with regard to the North East region, and this policy disconnect is largely responsible for the vast disparity between the region and other parts of the country.

The Prime Minister may have his own vision to transform the North East region as a new engine of growth and development for the whole country.

But the bitter truth is, a lot more needs to be done, that too expeditiously without bureaucratic or political hassles in order to tap the potential and opportunities provided by the region’s geographical location, and actually transform the region as India’s gateway to South and South East Asia.

Standard, all-weather highways are very few and inadequate in the country’s North East region even though it shares international boundaries with Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Bhutan and Nepal.

Everybody would like to see the Prime Minister’s New Engine (North East region) of growth roaring but it is anybody’s guess how long it will take for the new engine to come alive.

The North East region’s dismal transport infrastructure is one weak-link in the New Delhi’s otherwise quite energetic engagement with ASEAN.

Myanmar is India’s closest neighbour of the vibrant Southeast Asian bloc but Moreh, the country’s key trade link with Myanmar continues to be bogged down by multiple issues, infrastructure being one major issue.

Though India and Myanmar signed the border trade agreement on January 21, 1994 and it was made operational the following year, the bilateral trade figure stands at $50 million against Myanmar’s trade with China which was around $6 billion last year.

This is quite discernable from the fact that while China has pumped in huge funds to build modern infrastructure in Yunnan province to boost connectivity with Myanmar, the infrastructure at the India-Myanmar border township of Moreh is still quite inadequate.

This is one issue which demands immediate attention of both the State and Central Government.