Trading up, east by north-east

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Open up the borders...</span><br /><br />The bottomline of the Centre''s ''Look East'' trade policy is that you have to look east through north-east India. So borders with neighbours will open up anyway, whether we like it or not. <br /><br />There''s a popular perception that the north-east will be this enormous gateway through which everybody will be rushing into Asia or vice versa.<br /><br />But that''s not going to work unless we improve infrastructure and connectivity within the region as well as provide a stable political environment. <br /><br />The north-east can become the bridgehead - either as a manufacturing hub or a major entry port, providing a range of services - across Myanmar to south-east Asia and south-west China. <br /><br />We cannot be the bridge. That role is Myanmar''s. This will generate a lot of jobs but it''s critical that opportunities devolve to local people and are not cornered by the elite. <br /><br />Then again, why are we only looking towards Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur? There''s a huge middle-class right next-door in Bangladesh. Forget illegal migrants, lakhs of Bangladeshis visit India legally every year - for medical treatment, on pilgrimages... almost 80,000 come to study here. <br /><br />Even if a fraction of this market is diverted to the north-east it would bring in funds and improve our image. But we have made a mess of marketing ourselves.<br /><br />If we are going to open up borders, we must also be ready for large traffic. Basic infrastructure has to be in place. Within the region itself, routes are tough and connectivity is poor. <br /><br />Then there are the problems of insurgency and extortion. Without political stability, things will not move, investors will not come. Both armed militancy and militarisation has to dimish substantially if the region has to prosper through linkages to south-east Asia.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Go local...</span><br /><br />We must cater to our own strengths. We keep talking about opportunities that exist in the region - natural resources, hydroelectricity, orchids, human resources, processed foods - but never get down to doing anything about it. <br /><br />For example, there is a huge market for agro-processed products such as passion fruit, which grows extensively in the region, in South Asia and Australia. We have the potential and it has to be tapped through local initiatives and local skills. <br /><br />But opening up to the world won''t do the trick by itself. We should also be able to compete at least regionally.<br /><br />Tourism is yet another missed opportunity. What do we have in the name of tourism? There is one luxury boat along the Brahmaputra and a handful of high-quality resorts. We need a better tourist-friendly approach. <br /><br />Take languages: forget French or Spanish, how many trained guides do we have who can speak Tamil or Telugu? <br /><br />Orchids from Bangkok reach Amsterdam within hours. But we simply don''t have that kind of connectivity. We could connect to Dhaka, which is the nearest international airport - then a world of opportunities can open up. </div> </div>