CONCEPT BRIEF FOR “ACTING EAST FROM KOLKATA” ROUNDTABLE
ICCR KOLKATA, 22 JUNE 2018
India-ASEAN partnership is a force for peace and shared progress in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. The India-ASEAN Strategic Partnership acquired a new momentum with the announcement of “Act-East Policy” at the 12th Summit in 2014. It conveyed a clear intent on the part of India to up-scale its engagement with the ASEAN Member States. The Act-East Policy emphasizes Connectivity, Commerce and Culture as the focus areas of action for a greater ASEAN-India integration. It takes into account the blueprints of the three pillars of ASEAN community building process, the ASEAN vision document ASEAN 2025-Forging Ahead Together, the ASEAN Master Plan for Connectivity 2025,the ASEAN ICT Master Plan 2020 and the Initiative for ASEAN Integration Work Plan III. India’s ‘Act East Policy’ along with our vision of “SAGAR” i.e. Security and Growth for All in the Region.
Connectivity is a very important component of our engagement with all of the ASEAN countries. In 2015 India offered lines of credit to the ASEAN countries for not just physical connectivity but digital and people to people connectivity as well. So connectivity takes on a much bigger dimension. The North East of India is an important land bridge to the ASEAN region and then we of course have the maritime neighborhood. We are very strong maritime neighbors and strategic partners. West Bengal has had historic maritime, trading, ideological and cultural links with the ASEAN region.
Eastern India with Kolkata as its fulcrum has the traditional and historic links as well as the economic, industrial, agricultural, technological, educational, intellectual and scientific capacity to re-establish itself as a vibrant and productive hub for India’s engagement with the ASEAN region as well as its individual members.
Much of this has been discussed at various forums organized by the principal think tanks of Kolkata over the past ten years and more: and the consequence is that both BIMSTEC and BCIM processes, which were focused on Delhi, have come to place stress on activity centred on Kolkata.
The problem that remains is that the Eastern and North Eastern regions have felt little of the benefit of engagement with ASEAN. While various stakeholders have so far been working individually to promote their interests with ASEAN, it may be useful now for them to come together in a concerted and focused effort to” ACT EAST FROM KOLKATA”, identifying and prioritizing sectors for mutual engagement and developing ways and means to achieve the true potential for each. Academic institutions and thinks tanks should research and analyze data helpful for growing this engagement for the entrepreneurs while the logistics, hospitality and cultural players should increase physical as well as people-to- people links to support increasing integration of the ASEAN economies and peoples with that of Eastern India.
New and young entrepreneurs interested in developing a career in ASEAN engagement should be able to find information and support services in Kolkata to enable them to realize their aspirations and generate more wealth, capital and employment for the youth of eastern India, while potential ASEAN partners should find a warm welcome and enabling environment for them to find competent counterparts to realize their own ambitions for the Indian market. Collectively, the Eastern and North-eastern region should rapidly develop into a preferred partner for ASEAN engagement with India in all fields oh human endeavor, in a more direct and practical sense than has been the case, contributing to mutual benefit and shared prosperity of our peoples.
On Sunday, 3 June 2018 09:43:28 IST, Arun Roye <arunroye@ceners-k.com> wrote:
Many thanksAmbassador.
The invites shall go out by tomorrow.
I however wonder if Bengal’s Fin Min Shall participate as also
the Ambassaorsof Asean. No bar in trying
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 2, 2018, at 22:28, Sarva Chakravarti <sarva.chakravarti@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
“ACTING EAST FROM KOLKATA”—A ROUNDTABLE
HOSTED BY CENERS-K AND MEA BRANCH SECRETARIAT, KOLKATA
ICCR, 9/A HO CHI MINH SARANI
22 JUNE 2018, 1430-1730 HOURS
A LIST OF POSSIBLE PARTICIPANTS
1) SHRI AMIT MITRA, HON. MINISTER OF FINANCE & INDUSTRY, GOWB -02 (CONTACT AMB S.S. MUKHERJEE)
2) DIPLOMATS OF ASEAN EMBASSIES – 06
3) HONY CONSULS OF ASEAN IN KOLKATA -04
4) REPRESENTATIVE OF NER NEC/CCI -02
5) KOLKATA REPRESENTATIVES OF FIEO, FICCI, CII, ASSOCHAM,BNCCI,ICC,MCC, BCC -08
6) AIRLINE OPERATORS ASSOCIATION -01
7) TRAVEL OPERATORS ASSOCIATION – 01 – SHRI ANIL PANJABI
8) SHIPPING AGENT -01 – EC BOSE & CO.
9) LAWYER -01 – VICTOR MOSES & CO. OR FOX & MONDAL
10) CONSULTANCY SERVICES-02 (1 CONFIRMED)
11) FINANCIAL SERVICES – 01
12) UNIVERSITY (CU,JU,IIM-K,IMI)-05 ( SURANJAN DAS, HARI VASUDEVAN, LIPI GHOSH,
13) THINK TANKS (ORF, CSIRD,ASIAN CONFLUENCE) -03 ( ASHOK DHAR,BINODA MISHRA, SRIRADHA DATTA)
14) SECTORAL ASSOCIATIONS (NASSCOM, PHARMA, FOOD& AGRI, EEPC) -04
15) MEDIA-03 ( ANI, IANS, THE HINDU)
16) MEA BRANCH SECRETARIAT, KOLKATA-02
17) CENERS-K – 04
18) ICCR-1