GUWAHATI: Assam Government in collaboration with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, is organising a two-day ‘India-Bangladesh Stakeholders’ Meet’ on July 19-20 in Guwahati as part of its plan to operationalise initiatives taken in the light of Act East Policy.
Representatives from the Ministry of Shipping, Surface Transport, regulatory bodies like customs, port authorities and business bodies like freight forwarders and transporters will participate to discuss the finer details of commerce and resuming the actual physical movement of goods in these routes and to highlight the pending and administrative interventions required from both sides – India and Bangladesh.
Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal and Minister of Commerce, Government of Bangladesh, Tipu Munshi; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Government of Bangladesh, Dr. AK Abdul Momen; Adviser to Prime Minister, Bangladesh, International Affairs, Gowher Rizvi, have consented to inaugurate the meeting. Besides, a high level 60 members’ delegation of leaders and officials from Bangladesh and a similar contingent from various ministries of Government of India is expected to attend the two-day Stakeholders’ Meet.
It may be mentioned that as part of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision on Act East, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is taking a number of path breaking initiatives to implement the Act East Policy.
Last year, the Global Investors’ Summit was organised by the State Government with the tagline, ‘Assam – India’s expressway to ASEAN’. Ministers from six ASEAN and BBN countries, with an exclusive session on integration of Assam and NE, with ASEAN and BBN were the highlights of the Global Investors’ Summit.
Following this, the State Government at the initiative of the Chief Minister took up the matter of formulating a special scheme on the patterns of UDAN for connecting Guwahati with country capitals of ASEAN and BBN.
The Civil Aviation Ministry responded favourably and along with the State Government, a new scheme named International UDAN was drafted. Chief Minister immediately announced a Viability Gap Funding of Rs. 100 crores for three years to make this dream a reality.
Accordingly, Ministry of Civil Aviation and State Government decided to open six sectors namely, Guwahati-Dhaka, Guwahati-Bangkok, Guwahati-Kuala Lumpur, Guwahati-Kathmandu, Guwahati-Hanoi and Guwahati-Yangon.
The first flight to Dhaka has already taken off and the remaining flights are expected to take off this financial year.
Historically, Assam has been a rich and prosperous region with its resources namely, oil, tea, timber and coal. The British understood the business importance of these commodities and traded these to the outside world through the Stilwell Road, Tamu-Moreh-Mandalay Road, train route from Makum to Chittagong, the river route from Brahmaputra via ferries to Calcutta Port and Chittagong Port and the road routes from Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura to Bangladesh.
The Chief Minister has taken upon himself to restore all historic international trade routes through Assam and has taken up the matter with the concerned union ministries.
A delegation of Assam legislators and senior government officials, recently embarked upon a bus journey from Guwahati to Sylhet and from Imphal to Manadalay and Yangon, to understand the various issues, problems and opportunities which trade routes offer in these two countries, and also beyond these two countries with ASEAN.
The delegation from Assam had a fruitful discussion on how to resume trade. The delegation had a discussion with senior functionaries of Government of Bangladesh and divisional and local administration of Sylhet. Further, a detailed meeting was held with Sylhet Chambers of Commerce. During the deliberation, issues relating to bilateral trade and investment between Assam and Bangladesh and issues relating to infrastructure, connectivity and tourism, both at the NE India regional level and at the state level were discussed.