From C K Nayak
Nay Pyi Taw (Myan-mar): Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh arrived on Sunday night on a three day official visit to once isolated Myanmar in bid to rapidly improve the bilateral relations which would immensely help the next door Northeast region.
India will be looking to enhancing its presence in the resource-rich energy sector of Myanmar, especially oil and gas, and to improve the road connectivity with its strategic eastern neighbour.
The two countries are expected to sign an agreement for starting a bus service between Imphal and Mandalay, the second largest city of Myanmar, which is expected to give a major boost to India’s neighbourhood diplomacy following similar bus links between New Delhi and Lahore and Kolkata and Dhaka.
Manmohan Singh will also seek to bolster ties this week during the first visit by an Indian prime minister to Myanmar in 25 years.
His official agenda includes road, rail, waterways and air links but unofficially, he will also try to overcome a history of bad blood with Myanmar, where Indian investments are already cut to size by regional rival China.
The visit follows a year of dramatic reforms in which Myanmar has pulled back from China’s powerful economic and political orbit and won a suspension of U.S. and European sanctions.
Dr Singh will have bilateral talks and agreements with President Thein Sein on Monday and rap up with an audience of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Incidentally, as Myanmar emerging from decades of isolation, trade between the countries is already swelling. Myanmar’s government expects two-way trade with India to nearly double in two years to $2 billion, from just $1.4 billion. The two countries formally agreed on the so-called Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project in 2008. Work began on Sittwe port two years later , shortly before the former military junta held a “rigged” election that brought to power a quasi-civilian but surprisingly reformist government.
India is already Myanmar’s third-biggest export market after Thailand and China.
A delegation of top Indian business officials will join the Dr Singh on his visit. Myanmar expects to benefit from the Sittwe project, partly from jobs.
Essar employs 600 local people on the Sittwe site, although it brought in most of its skilled workers and specialist construction equipment from India.
The port is also part of a $214-million river and road network that will carve a trade route into India’s landlocked Northeast and further open the region to South East Asia.
The main engagements include discussions with President Thein Sein on bilateral, regional and other issues of mutual interest, and signing of the various agreements and MoUs, The President will host a banquet in honour of the Prime Minister on Monday night.
During his visit, Prime Minister will also deliver a public address on the theme “India and Myanmar: A Partnership for Progress and Regional Development”, at a function organized by the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and the Myanmar Development Resource Institute. There will also be interactions between the business delegations of the two sides. The Prime Minister would also visit the historic Shwedagon Pagoda and the Mazar of the Last Mughal Emperor of India Bahadur Shah Zafar, which is in Yangon.
He would also have a separate interaction with the Indian community in Myanmar.