The Hindu : Front Page : Manmohan for optimum use of energy resources

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 01, 2004

Front Page

Front Page

Manmohan for optimum use of energy resources

By K. Venugopal

BANGKOK, JULY 31. Leaders of the seven-nation BIMST-EC regional grouping who met here today reminded themselves about their vast natural and human resources, and how they must use them to raise their economic standards.

"We must accept that the aggregate economic performance of BIMST-EC has not been among the top ranks of the world," the host and Thailand Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, said at the summit meeting, the first time the heads of government and state have met in the seven-year history of the organisation.

"The danger is that after so long, we run the risk of getting used to life at the bottom," he said. "We must not. We must look up to the top to find the track to reach there."

He, however, warmly noted India's economic growth and the projection by Jeffrey Sachs in Fortune magazine that it would draw equal with the U.S. economy by 2050.

"The signs are there for all to see," he said. "Not only are big multinational companies relocating their manufacturing facilities to Asia, they have also been outsourcing their services offshore to Asia. The beneficiaries have not been just Asia, but consumers the world over."

Interconnectivity

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that the member nations needed to translate their inherent strengths of geographical contiguity into a community of prosperity and goodwill. Interconnectivity — physical, economic or technological — was of prime importance.

While noting the progress made towards a framework agreement on free trade, he stressed the importance of the trilateral India-Myanmar-Thailand highway proposal and the Optical fibre telecom link running alongside it.

Also for a region so richly endowed with energy resources, it was imperative that these were optimally utilised to meet the growing demands. India would host a ministerial conference in 2005 to provide an impetus to the joint efforts, he said.

To explore the vast potential for tourism, India would host a round table of Tourism Ministers and the industry with the objective of doubling tourism within BIMST-EC in five years, he said.

It was not all trade and the economy that the leaders had in mind. Terrorism was an issue most of them raised with concern. "Our mutual confidence would be greatly enhanced if we were able to forge a common front against terrorism, gunrunning, narcotics trafficking, which in varying degrees affect us all," said Dr. Singh.

The Sri Lankan President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, stressed that the BIMST-EC countries had the potential to do more and suggested the creation of an infrastructure development fund for the region to be managed by interested central banks on commercial terms. A facility to promote business travel was also required, she said.

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