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Sunday, Oct 19, 2008
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Niche role for India in ties with Myanmar

P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE: India and Myanmar will upgrade their trade links, strengthen ties in the power sector and consider diversifying cooperation in the oil and gas domain. These latest decisions were laced with a goodwill gesture from India in the area of its ‘core’ strength, information technology.

Indicating this, Union Minister of State for Commerce, Industry and Power, Jairam Ramesh, said here, while on his way back home from Yangon, that his talks with Myanmar Prime Minster Thein Sein reflected the new promise in economic ties. India could earn a “niche” role in this “strategically crucial” neighbourhood.

Gen. Thein Sein, who declared open the India-Myanmar Centre for Enhancement of Information Technology Skills in Yangon on Thursday, “appreciated” the IT initiative, for which India gave a $ 2-million grant. In the talks held later, Gen. Thein Sein evinced interest in extending the frontiers of economic ties, ranging from higher Indian investments in Myanmar to its exports of pulses and potentially palm oil to India.

At Gen. Thein Sein’s initiative, Mr. Ramesh discussed with Myanmar’s Energy Minister Lun Thi India’s capabilities in onshore oil-and-gas exploration. Brig. Gen. Lun Thi agreed to host an Indian delegation to assess the feasibility of awarding onshore contracts for blocks near the border with India. And, Myanmar would like India to be “more aggressive” in offshore exploration, for which three blocks were already assigned to ONGC-OVL. In this broad context, India offered to set up a centre for petroleum technology in Yangon.

Mr. Ramesh’s discussions with Myanmar’s Electric Power Minister Zhaw Min centred on the timelines of two India-aided projects and the overall competitiveness of Indian expertise. Myanmar was assured that there would be no slippage in respect of the ongoing 1,200-MW Thamanthi project in the Chindwin basin and the 111-MW Rakhine unit. Col. Zhaw Min pointed out that the cost-per-MW in China-aided projects was almost one-half of that in regard to the Indian venture.

Joint trade panel

The India-Myanmar Joint Trade Commission met in Mandalay earlier this week, co-chaired by Mr. Ramesh and his counterpart, Commerce Minister Tin Naing Thein. The panel decided to upgrade the existing border trade centres as normal trade routes, complete with banking and foreign exchange facilities.

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