It will be interesting to hear what the powers
that be might have to say about this.
Maybe Hazarika will forward it to the
'hard-hitting' minister to get some answers.But I
won't hold my breath.
There is nobody to redress.
There never was. And I cannot imagine when it
will be there under the prevailing system.
All the big talk about industries and
entrepreneurship are always from people who never
held a hammer in his life, or ever had to produce
anything to make a living.
At 10:25 PM +0530 2/2/07, mc mahant wrote:
Look East Policy is yet a farce.
Look what insults/losses I suffered in the last month:
With expensive bank loans I ordered 2 MIG/MAG
630 Amp Welding Machines ex Tianjin China@ $1510
FOB.
As I wanted to do some critical construction
job I asked them to Airfreight the machines to
L.G.N.B.International Airport,Guwahati via
Bangkok. No airlines would carry there. So I
said--via Delhi then(They care for the EAST and
Care Dearly for the North East!-I THOUGHT).
Only Korean Air will carry the cargo--gross 200
Kg~ -- and they charged $680. These arrived
Delhi on 15 January. On one pretext or the
other("Why are you buying Chinese", "We don't
accept E-mail" This Print is Hazy"----) these
were not released till today -after paying 37.5%
DutyonC.I.F. and "Delayed Collection charges".
In spite Of "Hon'ble Finance Minister announcing
Pre-Budget "We are pleased to reduce Duty
on Capital goods from 10% down t0 5% (on
FOB).There is nobody to redress.
NEDFI-DONER-OXOMmp's-Assam Govt-Look East--all
are Bekaar!
"Look East-" is also copied from Willy Brandt's
Drang nach Osten(towards USSR) in '70s .
"Look East " will be real only in Sovereign Oxom
where the main Trade will be from Kakopothar to
Chengdu in 70 minute hops.
And when bargeloads of Yunnan Phosphorites will
travel Da-li to Mytkina -to Patkoi-to Luit
valley daily.
mm
P.S. Pradip -maybe you would copy this to your
big address list -to whom you posted the original
From: Pradip Kumar Datta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[email protected],NorthEastIndia
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,[EMAIL PROTECTED],"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,Wake up India
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"[email protected]"
<[email protected]>,"[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Assam] Look East Policy and development of North East
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:28:55 -0800 (PST)
Look East Policy and development of North East
Rejaul Karim Laskar
The agreement reached during the fifth
India-ASEAN Summit held in Cebu, Phillippines on
January 14, 2007 on the proposed Free Trade
Agreement which will be ready by July 2007 is
a significant achievement of the Look East
Policy. It is to be hoped that such a free trade
agreement will open the door to new
opportunities for the development of North East
which has been stagnating due to lack of
economic development for the last six decades.
With the establishment of India-ASEAN Free Trade
Area, the North East will no longer be
handicapped by the Physical inaccessibility from
the rest of India, the way it has been for the
past six decades. Rather, it will be the centre
of this vast Free Trade Area
which may, in all probability, be one of the
largest and most dynamic free trade areas of the
world in the twenty-first century.
Though in the first phase of the Look East
Policy - unveiled by the Narsimha Rao
Government in the early nineties the Government
of India focused on renewing political and
economic contacts with the countries of East and
South-East Asia, in the second phase of this
policy the Government of India is giving special
emphasis on the economic development of backward
north eastern region of India taking advantage
of huge market of ASEAN as well as of the energy
resources available in some of the member
countries of ASEAN like Myanmar.
The Look East Policy started achieving success
as early as in 1992. In January 1992, India
became able to establish the first institutional
linkage with ASEAN by becoming a sectoral
dialogue partner of ASEAN in specific areas like
trade, investment, science and technology and
training. The institutional
linkage was upgraded in 1995 when India became a
full dialogue partner of ASEAN. In 1996 the
institutional linkage was further upgraded when
India was admitted in ASEAN Regional Forum
(ARF) which deals with security issues and has
a tremendous clout in Asia Pacific region. India
also became a founder member of East Asia Summit
and has participated in both first East Asia
Summit held in December 2005 and the just
concluded second East Asia Summit held on
January 15, 2007. But upgradation of
institutional linkage with South East Asia is
not the only benefit of the Look East Policy,
but more importantly, this policy has led to a
steady expansion of Indias trade and investment
links with the East and South East Asia region.
From a meagre $ 2.5 billion in 1993-94,
India-ASEAN trade is now more than $21 billion.
But the most important beneficiary of this Look
East Policy will, obviously be the north eastern
region of India. In the second phase of the Look
East Policy
the Government of India is giving special
emphasis on the development of North East by
taking advantage of the physical contiguity of
this region with the ASEAN. With the admission
of Myanmar into ASEAN in 1997, North East has
now become Indias gateway to ASEAN. As the
process of establishment of India-ASEAN Free
Trade Area progresses North East will have the
potential to become the hub of this future
growth engine of Asia. But, of course, road,
rail and air linkages will have to be improved
to realise this potential. This is the reason
why the Government of India is giving special
emphasis on improving the road connectivity
between North East and Myanmar by investing in
transport infrastructure in North East as well
as in Myanmar. India and Thailand have also
planned a trilateral project with Myanmar to
link the three nations through a road corridor.
The India-ASEAN car rally held in November 2004
was also a conscious effort to strengthen the
road linkages between ASEAN
and the North East.
The ASEAN-India Partnership for peace, progress
and shared prosperity pact signed by Prime
Minister Dr Manmohan Singh with leaders of the
ASEAN countries at the third India-ASEAN summit
on Vientine on November 30, 2004, which outlined
a multi-pronged action plan for boosting trade,
investment, tourism, culture, sports and people
to people contact will not only go a long way
towards economic integration between India and
ASEAN but will also facilitate development of
the North East. The plan to build institutional
linkages for intelligence and information
sharing, exchange of information and cooperation
in legal and enforcement matters and to
explore developing anti-terrorism cooperation
and assistance packages covering among others
immigration control, customs cooperation, land,
air and sea safety will contribute immensely to
curbing terrorism in North East.
Another dimension of Look East Policy is the Bay of Bengal Initiative for
Multi-Sectoral Economic and Technological
Cooperation (BIMSTEC) established in June 1997
as BIST-EC (Bangladesh-India- Sri Lanka-Thailand
Economic Co-operation) but renamed as BIMST-EC
(Bangladesh-India-Myanmar-Sri Lanka-Thailand
Economic Co-operation) in December 1997 and
again renamed as Bay of Bengal Initiative for
Multi Sectoral Economic and Technological
Cooperation (BIMSTEC) in July 2004. Presently
its members are Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri
Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal. The members
of this grouping have also been working for
quite some time for a Free Trade Agreement among
themselves. But the postponement of the second
BIMSTEC Summit, which was scheduled to be held
on February 8, 2007 has given a setback to this
endeavour. Incidentally, the North East lies at
the centre of both the proposed India-ASEAN Free
Trade Area and the BIMSTEC Free Trade Area and
has the potential to be a hub of these two
future growth engines of Asia.
(Source: Assam Tribune 19th January 2007)
Looking for earth-friendly autos?
<http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/;_ylc=X3oDMTE4MGw4Z2hlBF9TAzk3MTA3MDc2BHNlYwNtYWlsdGFncwRzbGsDZ3JlZW5jZW50ZXI->Browse
Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos'
Green Center.
>_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Latest from the world
<http://g.msn.com/8HMBENIN/2743??PS=47575>of
gadgets and gizmos
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
