Myanmar plays key role in ASEAN-India relations

http://www.mmtimes.com/no458/n007.htm

By Thet Khaing
MYANMAR plays a key role in plans by New Delhi and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to strengthen economic ties because it is the only ASEAN member to share a border with India, a conference in the Indian capital was told last month.

Myanmar also has the potential to benefit from a forthcoming free trade agreement between ASEAN and India, which will create a market of more than 1.5 billion people, the “Delhi Dialogue I” conference was told on January 21.

The ASEAN secretary general, Mr Surin Pitsuwan, told the conference that the free trade agreement would be ready for signing by the two sides at a summit due to be held in Thailand in April.

He said every ASEAN member would benefit from the agreement, which has been under negotiation since 2004.

This was because ASEAN exported “more to India than India to us,” Mr Surin said, adding that trade volume between India and ASEAN last fiscal year was US$37 billion, of which ASEAN exports accounted for more than $24 billion.

ASEAN hoped that trade volume would reach $50 billion by 2010, Mr Surin said, adding that he believed the figure was “not too ambitious, taking into consideration the positive impact of the FTA and the economic downturn everywhere else except us; we are better prepared.”



Another factor was the size of the market, he said, noting that India and ASEAN had a total population of 1.7 billion and a combined GDP of $2.4 trillion.

India has been placing emphasis on increasing economic ties with ASEAN for developing infrastructure and to meet its energy needs.

India and Myanmar are working to establish a new trading route across the Kaladan River, under the terms of an agreement reached last April.

The $132 million deal provides for upgrading port facilities at the Rakhine State capital, Sittwe, where the Kaladan River enters the Bay of Bengal, as well as building a 117-kilometre highway from Kalewa in Sagaing Division to the Indian border.

The Indian government is funding the project, which is expected to take five years to complete.

“The Kaladan project, the trilateral India-Myanmar-Thailand transport link and the Delhi-Hanoi rail link are three very important projects which will facilitate inter-connectivity between Southeast Asia and onward to West Asia and beyond,” India’s External Affairs Minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee told the conference.

Mr Mukherjee said India’s energy needs and ASEAN’s energy reserves were factors that could help to promote closer ties.

“Simultaneous attainment of energy security, market rationalisation and environmental preservation in Asia requires the best ‘energy mix’ for each country,” Mr Mukherjee said

“India’s own energy linkages with the ASEAN member states have enormous potential for our relationship to get even deeper,” he said.

However, business experts say more time and interaction between the two sides are needed to reap the full potential of the economic and political ties between India and ASEAN.

The chairman of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Mr Rajeev Chandrasekhar, welcomed the FTA, saying it was a good arrangement by the two sides in light of the global economic slowdown.

“The agreement will strengthen the market, exports and investment flows, in a sense you create an island which has lesser dependence on the volatility in the West,” Mr Chandrasekhar said.

However, Mr Krishan Kumar Modi, the chairman of Modi Enterprises, a big Indian conglomerate, said the FTA might not meet expectations for an increase in trade between India and ASEAN because New Delhi had little influence over where exporters should be doing business.

The conference was jointly organised by the FICCI and the Singapore-based Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.