Opportunities of Border Trade in North East India: With Special Reference to Indo-Myanmar Border Trade

Rishi Bhargav Das, Anjan Kumar Bordoloi

North Eastern India has nine percent of India’s geographical area and contributes three percent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). In relative terms, it is one of India’s economically laggard regions. However, given its natural resources base and strategic location, NER has the potential to become India’s “powerhouse” in terms of trade and investment. The region is best known for its cultural heritage, ethnic beauty and rich natural resources. The region has rich bio diversity, oil and natural gas, coal, limestone, hydro potential and forest wealth. Given the peculiar geo-political location, the region can develop cross-border markets, which are likely to be more cost effective for North East India’s surplus production than the distant national markets. The region is famous for its exotic flora and fauna. It is ideally situated to produce spices, fruit & vegetables, flowers and herbs. Therefore, the North East India can emerge as an exporter of orchids, flowers, apple, orange, pineapples, spices, herbs, etc. to the South East Asian Region. From the geo-political angle, the NER is located in a strategic location as it is bounded by several foreign countries. Naturally it has got both advantages and disadvantages due to its location. So far advantages are concerned it is connected with the South-East Asian countries mainly China, Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia and Indonesia etc where almost half of the world’s population live. Border trade has special significance for the economies of the North-Eastern States, which have a large segment of international border on their boundaries. Of the border trade conducted through the international border of these states, it has been mentioned in the report of the Inter-Ministerial Task force that the trade with Bangladesh and Myanmar is especially important for a variety of reasons. Apart from the fact that these two nations account for the major portion of the border trade with the North Eastern States, India has to forge special trade relationship with both Myanmar and Bangladesh in view of the Inter-Country trade issues. The paper intends to find out the prospects of trade with Myanmar for N.E. states of India, examining its constraints and challenges and analyze the initiatives of Myanmar and India for border trade in view of Look East Policy.