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Published : 10 Jul 2014, 07:02 AM
"That would be the key to your development because you can use access to the sea to connect to larger markets for your products," Dipu Moni said in her keynote address at the first ever Tripura Conclave late on Wednesday in Agartala.
The Conclave is conceived as the beginning of a policy dialogue to fine tune's Tripura's responses to India's Look East policy and trans-national processes like BCIM and BIMSTEC. It is organised by the state's leading portal, www.tripurainfoway.com.
Dipu Moni, now chairperson of the parliamentary commitee on foreign affairs, said Bangladesh's present government has comprehensively addressed India's security concerns in the country's Northeast and cracked down hard on insurgents from the region who had found shelter in the country during previous regimes.
"Our government has zero tolerance for terror and the crackdown is an ongoing process, as evidenced in the recent seizures of a huge consignment of weapons at Habiganj," she said.
India has been able to contain the insurgencies in Northeast with active cooperation from Bangladesh, she said to a huge applause from the audience.
Dipu Moni stressed Bangladesh's "special relations" with Tripura and lauded its huge contributions to the liberation war effort.
"You sheltered more people from my country during the 1971 war than what was your population at that time. This is one state in India which is always so friendly to Bangladesh and you have proved that time and again," she said.
"We want to take this relation forward in more ways than one. Much has already happened but we have bigger dreams and we will achieve them," said Dipu Moni , as she pitched for improved conditions for trade with India's Northeast.
"We see Tripura as our gateway to Northeast. We want to increase investments in the region and access resources and markets here," said Abdul Matlub Ahmad, president of the Indo-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He said Indian companies investing in Bangladesh must re-export their products to Northeast and other parts of India and not merely sell them in Bangladesh's markets.
"We welcome them to our country but they must export," he said.
Ahmad also pitched for Bangladesh companies to be allowed by the country's government to invest more in India's Northeast.
"India has allowed us duty free access for our products to its markets. We must be allowed by our government to reinvest a part of our profits from trade with India in the country's Northeast," Ahmad said.
"It is no good stocking up forex reserves unless they can be gainfully invested. Northeast is next door and is crucial for important resources and markets. We should be allowed to set up production units there," he said.
He said atleast ten percent of our profits from trade with India should be reinvested in the Northeast.
Indian speakers supported the idea that was first put forward by former minister of Northeastern affairs Mani Shankar Aiyar.
In 2009, he said at a book launch in Delhi that Indian private sector has been criminal in its neglect of Northeast and the region must be opened up for Bangladesh capital.
