Governor bats for better connectivity among the Asian countries

Itagar, March 11: Aruchal Pradesh Governor Lt. Gen (Retd) Nirbhay Sharma has emphasized on building better connectivity among the Asian countries to promote development through regiol integration and enhancing security.

Addressing the participants of the two-day conference on the theme ‘Building Pan-Asian Connectivity’, organised by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in a special meeting at Kolkata on Tuesday, Sharma said that the most crucial pre-requisition was realizing the vital link between security and development, a Raj Bhawan communiqué informed here today.

“The main area of concern is the spillover effect of socio-economic inequality and resultant insurgencies. The ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ have to be dealt with simultaneously at a regiol basis, cutting across tiol boundaries,” he said.

Underscoring the recent thrust by the Centre to ‘Act East’, the governor said that the endeavour of the union government requires developing connectivity within its tural area of economic inter-dependence, enhancing regiol and global markets by expanding capacities and creating a multi transportation model.

“The economic benefits that will accrue from the joint effort will be phenomel,” he pointed out.

Highlighting the enormous potential of the region and cost to harness it, he said that the untapped economic potential of the core of East and Southeast Asia region, when realized would not only mitigate the developmental cost to an extent but also restore socio-economic balance.

“The challenge now is to build better connection for meeting basic needs such as water, sanitation, electricity, transport, and telecommunications, as well as for trade facilitation and further integration of regiol production networks. If Asia were to seize the opportunity of building regiol connectivity in the entire continent, there is a need to recognise that today’s opportunity may not present itself in future,” he stressed.

The governor also highlighted on trans-boundary issues like building of dams and apprehension and concerns in the region on River Brahmaputra. He called for upstream-downstream interactions within the region and with respect to the contiguous Himalayan areas as the issues is contributing to the conflict scerio.

Sharma also called for preservation of the environment and balance the wheel of development in tune with it.

Representatives from ASEAN and BIMSTEC countries and United States of America are participating in the conference, which includes Ambassador Richard Verma, US ambassador to India and many distinguished diplomats and intellectuals, the communiqué added.

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