BackADB may fund road projects in North-East region
ADB aims to establish transport linkages with India's neighbours for greater intra-regional trade in South Asia
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New Delhi: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has shown interest in funding road projects in the North-eastern region to establish transport linkages with India’s neighbouring countries for greater intra-regional trade in South Asia.
Under the ADB’s South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) programme, ADB would provide around $323 million and the Indian government will make available around $58 million to complete the projects in about five years.
“Economic integration of the two regions is low and could be enhanced by improving connectivity in this region through highway infrastructure," a road ministry official said.
“India is the only country to share its borders with most of the members of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) and thus has strategic advantage. Look-east policy of India and recent opening-up of the economy of Myanmar are new windows of opportunity for developing better connectivity with South-East Asia," he added.
SASEC is an initiative to promote economic cooperation between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal. In 1996, these four South Asian neighbours formed the South Asian Growth Quadrangle (SAGQ) with the primary objective of accelerating sustainable economic development among them.
This sub-regional initiative was endorsed at the SAARC summit in Malé, Maldives in 1997. Subsequently, these four countries requested ADB’s assistance in facilitating their economic cooperation initiative. This request led to the implementation of the SASEC programme. Since the inception of SASEC, ADB has informally functioned as its secretariat.
Nisha Taneja, professor at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations think-tank, said though greater linkage within South Asian countries is always welcome, real economic gain would occur if the link can be extended to China.
“This is because the South Asian countries cannot do much trade with themselves beyond a point. With Myanmar under the fold, one has to think about China," she said.
The project envisages road links between Panitanki-Fulbari on the Nepal-India-Bangladesh corridor, Jaigaon-Changrabandhu on the Bhutan-India-Bangladesh corridor, Imphal-Moreh on the India-Myanmar border, and a bridge on Mechi river along the India-Nepal border.
These projects involve construction of 245km of roads.
ADB financing for state road projects which are to be converted into national highways in Manipur for connectivity with Myanmar and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries is also being explored for three road stretches.
“Talks with ADB are on, and we are hoping to finalize details and open bids for these projects within this fiscal year ending March," the road ministry official mentioned above said.
South Asia and South-East Asia are two of the world’s fastest growing regions. According to the World Bank, South Asia’s growth is expected to strengthen to 5.7% in 2014 compared to the projected global economic growth of 3.1%. However, intra-regional trade in South Asia is only 2% of the total trade, as compared with 25% in ASEAN and 40% in North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) countries and 63% in the European Union.
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