Teesta, LBA under active consideration, says Saran

The issue of sharing Teesta water and implementation of the Land Boundary
Agreement (LBA) were under process and active consideration of the Indian government, said Indian High Commissioner Pankaj Saran on Wednesday.
The Teesta water sharing would be settled through discussion based on the principle of equitable distribution and satisfaction of all stakeholders. "The process of arriving at the consensus of sharing water, which is acceptable to all is currently underway," said the High Commissioner while addressing a press meet.
Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) arranged the press meet on "DCAB talk" at the conference room of the National Press Club with its President Masud Karim in the chair. DCAB General Secretary Bashir Ahmed also addressed the meeting.
"Water is a major challenge for both of our countries as well as the entire region. We have to find out ways and means of managing this precious resource, sharing it and making the best possible use of what we have," he said.
Both countries had to share the pain and find equitable solutions which would involve burden sharing and broad consensus among all stakeholders, said the envoy. "Once the solution arrives, everyone will know about it," said Saran replying to a volley of questions on tricky bilateral issues.
Regarding Land Boundary Agreement (LBA), the envoy pointed out that India was committed to resolve both the Teesta river issue and implementation of the LBA, and aws now working on completing their internal procedures at the earliest.
The Indian high Commissioner, however, praised Bangladesh for maintaining six plus economic growth over the last 10 years adding that the country had all the opportunities to attract foreign investments.
"The country has cheap labour, good geographical position, stable policy transparency-which most of the foreign investment look for," said the envoy. The envoy said many countries did not have such an opportunity what Bangladesh had in terms of attracting FDI (foreign direct investment).
Saran said both Bangladesh and India had the shortage of capital and investment but had labour resources.
"We understand the importance of FDI because we're convinced that FDI into India will create jobs, bring technology and will help us in our growth efforts bridging infrastructure gap."
The Indian High Commissioner expressed hope that Bangladesh would also have similar approach to attracting FDI into Bangladesh. He pointed out that many Indian companies were working in Bangladesh. Indian investors, Saran said, requested the government for granting them a special economic zone for setting up industries of their own.
"The government responded positively and we are now looking for suitable places," said the ambassador adding that Indian investments would help augment Bangladesh's exports and help reduce the huge trade gap between the two countries.
The diplomat said that investment by Indian companies in Bangladesh had to be something which benefits the country.
"If that is not the case, investment won't be able to take place." More FDI would automatically translate into significant growth in Bangladesh's economy and export with reduction of trade imbalance, he explained.
Dwelling on the long relations between the two countries, he said that both the countries were also facing similar challenges. He pointed out that the relation and friendship got stronger now and it would continue in future.
Pankaj Saran said they were looking forward to further strengthening the relationship between the two countries. "The closer economic ties between the two countries will mutually be rewarding each other," he added.
In this regard, he mentioned Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to Indian, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's visit to Dhaka and allowing duty-free-quota free export of Bangladesh products to Indian market. He also pointed out the Indian credit offer to Bangladesh, especially US$ 1 billion line of credit (LoC) Indian extended in 2010 for implementing various development projects.
India later converted US$ 200 million out of the US$ 1 billion LoC into grant assistance in June 2012, enabling Bangladesh to utilise it for any priority project, which he said now is being used for construction of the Padma Bridge project. Of the US$ 200 million, so far about US$ 185 million was released.  
Replying to an allegation of difficulties in getting appointment dates for getting India visa, Saran said that he was aware of the problems and informed New Delhi which controls the entire visa system.  
"We are trying our best to see how we can mitigate and reduce the difficulties, especially when it comes to online application".
When asked about Indian interest to develop the Inland Container Terminal at Ashuganj, the high commissioners said that they received a proposal for modernising the port and were now examining the proposal.
Regarding smuggling and border killing Mr Saran said both India and Bangladesh were working together and undertook a number of measures to act against criminals and smugglers and enhanced cooperation between the border forces through coordinated border management plan.
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