Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced recently that the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway passing through Moreh will be completed by 2016. The vast expanse of possibilities of economic growth and overwhelming changes in Manipur and the north-eastern region from the Look East Policy entering its home lap is both enticing and intimidating.
As India’s effort to attain extensive economic and strategic relations with Southeast Asian nations and stamp its position as a regional power nears fulfillment, it is worth perusing on what will be the contributions from the north-eastern region and its benefits as the trade route has to transverse through it. Can it become an active player in the Indo-ASEAN trade that is nearing 100 billion USD or merely watch it from close quarters as bystanders.
Whatever, the region will be starting from a disadvantage. The skewed proclivity for government jobs among almost all the communities in the region that has lasted generations after generations has shackled them in the global economic race. Bitter it may sound, but we have to forsake some of our beliefs and habits even if we had hold them with attachment throughout our lives, and adventurously embrace alien ways of making a living because they hold good promise for the future of our existence and could stave off the possibility of being dominated by others economically or otherwise. Learning is a human trait and there is no lesson that is too queer or beyond our cognitive ability. Entrepreneurship -like any other skill – has to be taught and the fallacy of its inheritance from our forefathers has been another restraining factor. The only possible way to inculcate business skill or enabling ourselves to become better at taking risk is to jump into the field and learn it practically.
On its own, none of the north-eastern states has the complete facilities for commercial independence. Understanding this shortcoming, the states in the region need to build a comprehensive agenda for cooperation and framework to pursue common economic goals. For example, the history of Manipur and Nagaland over the last four-five decades is predominantly that of hostility and intolerance due to obvious political reasons. But entrepreneur Neichute Duolo from the neighboring state pointed out at the inauguration of Chinjak Festival that the two states complement each other in many ways. For example with its dense population Imphal is the natural market for many of the products of Nagaland. And the story is the same for other states as well.
Focusing on the advantages, with the imminent operation of the trans-Asian highway, the region has a strategic leverage which all the states must enjoy together. Besides, the region has the potentiality for surplus power production to share. Some states have rich oil reserves, others have the environment for horticulture products, plantation crops, medicinal plants and others have the roads to market those products. Along the way, the region can even start looking westward too, towards mainland India and the millions of people, as another market for its vast resources. It is necessary to uphold the fact that the potential for economic growth in the region is in examining the potential of cooperation and engaging in strategic partnership among each other. Beginning now, if there is constant economic motion in the region, if the economy is not rested or put at ease, the elevation of the region into an economic zone is very much achievable.