One of the key agreements signed Monday between India and China is to 'explore' possibilities of a BCIM economic corridor.
BCIM stands for Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar, a Forum founded in 1999 in Kunming, as part of an initiative by the civil society organisations of the four countries to explore opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation.
With more than one-third of the world's population and huge economic resources, these four nation grouping is believed to link up south with south-east and East Asia.
India has been somewhat reluctant in pursuing the mutually agreed agenda of the BCIM, fearing Chinese domination.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) and India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrive for a photo opportunity ahead of their meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi May 20, 2013. Li on Sunday arrived in New Delhi for a three-day state visit. Credit: Reuters/Adnan Abidi
The Chinese have pushed for turning the BCIM into a growth engine to push for greater multi-option transport connectivity and economic synergy.
Now with Delhi agreeing to explore the Chinese proposal for a BCIM economic corridor, frontier regions of these four regions stands likely to gain, as trade and industry may find its way to otherwise neglected frontier regions.
The 11th BCIM Forum, held in Dhaka in February this year, led to a consensus for joint exploration of energy cooperation and multi-modal transportation to create prospective trade and transit corridors.
Representatives signed a joint statement at the closing ceremony of the 3-day long conference.
The joint statement said, “In the discussion on the issue of energy cooperation, the Forum noted that ensuring energy security remained a major concern for all the countries of the BCIM region.”
“In this connection the Forum observed that there were significant opportunities for joint exploration of natural resources, collaborative investment in energy sector development and cross border trade and movement in energy within the region," it added.
The statement added, “The Forum reiterated the need for developing multi-modal connectivity through coordinated development of road-rail-water and air linkages within the region. The BCIM countries could gain significantly from trade and transit corridors.”
Bangladesh highlighted development of transit and transhipment with neighbouring countries emphasising for opening up the country's port infrastructure including deep-sea port to the land-locked countries.
China stressed on turning highways into expressways under bilateral arrangements with neighbouring countries and development of cross-border transport facilities.
India pointed more on community benefits while introducing multi-modal connectivity along the corridor of the BCIM.
Myanmar highlighted the country's gap in road, rail and air link and the need to develop them.
