Integration with Myanmar, India, BD to transform region: Li

Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang announced plans for a landmark regional economic project that has the potential to transform the lives of 440 million people in its catchment area during a meeting with Myanmar’s President U Thein Sein. ‘The Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor will also see a major infrastructure drive for the project, which has the potential to revitalise the economies involved,’ the Chinese premier was quoted by the China Daily as saying on Sunday. The meeting between Li and Thein Sein was held on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit plenary session at the Myanmar International Convention Center in Naypyitaw, Myanmain. Linking India’s northeast, Bangladesh, Myanmar and the Chinese province of Yunnan, the corridor will lead to major socioeconomic development and will provide a massive boost to trade in South Asia, Chinese delegation members said in the Myanmarese capital. ‘India made it clear that it is interested in the BCIM Economic Corridor and willing to take part in it,’ said Wen Fude, head of the Institute of South Asia Studies at Sichuan University. Wen also suggested that transport infrastructure should be a priority. And Pravakar Sahoo, a researcher from Delhi University, said the current focus of corridor talks is examining an inter-regional road network. ‘The network is planned to run from China’s Kunming to Kolkata, the capital of India’s West Bengal state, and links Mandalay in Myanmar and Dhaka and Chittagong in Bangladesh,’ Sahoo said. ‘The combined population of India’s northeast, Yunnan province, Bangladesh and Myanmar is 440 million. The corridor will allow all four countries to exploit existing trade complementarities,’ the China Daily quoted Sahoo as saying. Sahoo suggested that energy collaboration could result in a rapidly changing economic landscape.