India’s ‘Act East’ policy lauded

Visakhapatnam: ASEAN is now transforming itself to become a comprehensively integrated regional organisation and India’s ‘Act East’ policy would contribute to the ASEAN-India strategic partnership specifically by improving connectivity with ASEAN member states, said Ambassador Moe Kyaw Aung Embassy of the Republic of Union of Myanmar (New Delhi).

Ambassador Moe Kyaw Aung Embassy of the Republic of Union of Myanmar (New Delhi) appreciated the Indian government for providing $245 million grant in aid to implement India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway project

 Delivering the key note address at international conference on ‘India-ASEAN partnership@25’ organised by GITAM School of International Business here on Saturday, he said that India’s Act East policy facilitating for trade, deepening of political dialogue and stepping up of cooperation on security issues.

He appreciated the Indian government for providing $ 245 million grant in aid to implement India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway project. He considered that the extension of the India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway to Laos and Cambodia would be a friendship bridge in future. 

The proposed Rihkhawdar-Tedim Road and Paletwa-Kaletwa-Zorinpui Border Road under the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project would be the most viable pathway between Myanmar and India. The regional connectivity would serve as key in promoting ASEAN-India economic activities and helpful for the initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI), he added.

GITAM Chancellor Prof K Ramakrishna Rao said that Gandhian thoughts are more relevant today to establish peace and holistic relations between the nations. He mentioned that countries in ASEAN must cooperate with a holistic perspective.

GITAM Vice-Chancellor Prof MS Prasada Rao briefed about the international academic relations with GITAM and expressed that lot of investment opportunities in Visakhapatnam for ASEAN countries.

Royal Thai Consulate General Krong Kanit Rakcharoen, Republic of South Korea Consular General Suresh Chukkapalli, Malaysia High Commission First Secretary Muhammad Azfar Abdullah, Lao PDR First Secretary Phonekeo Sakdavong expressed that ASEAN is now transforming itself to become a comprehensively integrated regional organisation, sharing same values and norms with the common goal.

Exim Bank Mission in CLMV Region:

Chief General Manager, Export Import Bank of India Prahalathan Iyer said that ASEAN’s total trade account for 7.1 per cent share of the world trade and it is the fourth largest trading region in the world, behind the European Union, USA and China. 

He pointed out that within the ASEAN region, CLMV countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam) cumulatively rank the third largest in terms of size of the economy and India is concentrating on these CLMV countries to boost trade and investment as part of Act East policy. 

He informed that Exim bank had undertaken a mission to explore opportunities for India investments in the CLMV region. The Government of India has set up a Project Development Fund (PDF) with a corpus of Rs.500 core to develop manufacturing hubs in CLMV countries.

The PDF, housed in the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India would be operated through Exim Bank, he added.