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Event Report

On 3^rd August 2022, Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF)  and Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement (NIICE) jointly organised a discussion on “BIMSTEC Master Plan for Transport Connectivity”. The speakers were from India and Nepal. The discussion session was chaired by Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director, VIF and the speakers were Dr Sreeradha Datta, Head of Neighbourhood Studies Center, VIF, Dr. Pritam Banerjee, Logistics Sector Specialist Consultant, Asian Development Bank, Dr Pramod Jaiswal, Research Director, NIICE, Mihir Bhonsale, Policy Analyst and Prof. Meena Vaidya Malla, Member of Academic Sub-Committee, National Defense University Nepal.

The chairperson of the session Dr. Arvind Gupta started discussion citing some of the insightful and enlightening information along with his thoughts about the BIMSTEC. He highlighted how Bay of Bengal connected people of the region for centuries and the connection was seamless. He further added that how people from all over India used to go to Myanmar to work, trade and invest which were very common. He stressed that the 4^th Summit held in Kathmandu and 5^th Summit held in Colombo were a step forward. Highlighting the features of “BIMSTEC Master Plan for Transport Connectivity”, he shared that the significant study on connectivity was brought out with the help of ADB. He stressed that there are a large number of projects - ongoing projects, flagship projects, new projects and signature projects. Moreover, he explained that plans have been divided into different categories such as road transport, railway transport, air and inland waters but road alone takes more than 50 percent of requirements which are projected to be around USD 47 billion. He reminded that the master plan is a decade-long plan starting from 2018 to 2028. He also raised concerns on the implementation part as the region is struggling with economic distress, COVID-19 and geopolitical tensions. Dr. Gupta also highlighted that India has made tremendous contribution in last few years in building connectivity with Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka etc., but Indian experience shows that there are many challenges. He stressed that implementation and execution required high-level political will and political attention. Therefore, all member countries have to speed up their decision so that the consensus is made on time. He remarked that the political instability in Myanmar has also created problems for timely implementation of various projects under multimodal transport. He highlighted that there are some lessons which need to be learned from the project execution so that the BIMSTEC Master Plan does not suffer from those deficiencies. Further, Dr Gupta requested panellists to give their views on how to involve the private sector, how to expedite policy decisions and how to make good project reports based on feasibility studies etc. which could mitigate future hitches. He stressed that the infrastructure construction has to be in accordance with the norms and should not create economic distress to the countries.

Dr. Sreeradha Dutta stated that the connectivity initiatives must be based on universally recognized international norms, good governance, the rule of law, openness, transparency, financial responsibility and must be pursued in a manner that respects: sovereignty, equality, and territorial integrity of nations. She highlighted that road transport is one of the major sectors as 60 percent of the trade at present takes place through roads. She shared that in BIMSTEC there are five South Asian countries, and there is need to take cargo away from road and the road should be left for tourism and religious circuits like Buddhists circuit. Mentioning the Ports and Maritime Transport as one of the prime sectors in the Master plan, she highlighted that Nepal and Bhutan that do not have access to ports will have greater advantage. Similarly, she stressed that Inland Water Transport is one of the means and economically viable medium of transport but except Bangladesh, others have not been utilizing it adequately. She emphasised that Railways and Rail Transport connectivity should be prioritized and India is focusing on railway connectivity with Nepal. She further said that for tourism, the Civil Aviation and Airport Development is significant. Thailand is much efficient from other members in terms of its Airport Management and its airport is the world’s fourth busiest airport. She enlightened that the transport connectivity only makes sense when there is trade. Dr. Datta explained that there are certain stalling factors in terms of the efficiency of BIMSTEC and BIN-MVA, which can be solved by greater coordination and cooperation among the members and by focusing on the region more clearly. She highlighted the fact that the lack of coordinated development between the hard infrastructure and the soft infrastructure is a major hindrance in terms of connectivity. For example, she took the example of Agartala where there is commending connectivity infrastructure but lack of trade. She said that land customs stations do not work effectively because of the lack of a proper banking system. Moreover, she believes that the trade routes must be mostly dependent on the sea routes and railways and the roads should be for tourists.

She further stressed on the importance of coordination among all the members of BIMSTEC in order to really develop it as a successful arrangement. She explained how the lack of proper data is imposing problems in developing the efficacy of BIMSTEC and there is the need to develop greater cooperation among the members of the BIMSTEC in regards to data access and data handling. She also shed some light on the issue that BIMSTEC does not prove to be the major regional experience for some member countries, like Nepal, which believes the only proper regional experience has come from SAARC which undermines the credibility of BIMSTEC in a broader sense.

Dr. Pritam Banerjee, Logistics Sector Specialist Consultant at Asian Development Bank said that the prioritization of the projects under BIMSTEC is a multi-layered issue and the priority depends on the national priorities. He spoke specifically about the relation between the BIMSTEC Master Plan (BMP) and the national plans. In this regard, he also explained the issues regarding the Gati Shakti Master Plan (GSMP) for Multi Modal Connectivity by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He explained the problems regarding the ‘scheduled passenger services’ and ‘non-scheduled passenger services’ in borders between countries. He stressed on the importance of taking into account the political economy and the importance of specific value chains in the implementation of BIMSTEC plans and projects. His presentation primarily focused on operational aspects from a logistics perspective where he did the comparative analysis between the GSMP and the BMP. He explained that GSMP and BMP have a lot of commonalities such as Multi-sectoral Approach on Road/ Rail/ Air/ Sea/ IWT of both. Moreover, he focused on Inter-Model Infrastructure and last-mile to key gateways (sea, air and land ports) have lots of commonalities. In this regard, he explained that both are focusing on arterial transport infrastructure and the coordination of infrastructure; however, one is for regional coordination and another for states within India. Moreover, he highlighted that BMP has focused on border infrastructure and trade facilitation whereas GSMP has focused on the coordination of infrastructure between the national line ministries like the airport, transport ministries and the Indian’s states as states also play a role in infrastructure development.

He enlightened the overlap between GSMP and BIMSTEC through a map and explained how GSMP worked as a Force Multiplier to BMP through his sketch. He further explained how those synergies help, with some illustrative examples of Bangladesh West Bound EMG Cargo via JNPT, Nepal bulk cargo via Sahibganj IW Terminal to Kolkata Port Extended Gate eastbound from/ to Singapore and Seamless railway connectivity between Tamil Nadu industry clusters with Dhaka and Tripura/ Barak valley. He added that it allows Bangladesh to use that infrastructure to third countries to export to western world and it allows India to better connectivity with Northeast, specifically Barak Valley and it allows better trade between India and Bangladesh especially from the Southeast part.

Dr Pramod Jaiswal spoke of the BIMSTEC Master Plan from a Nepalese Perspective. He highlighted BIMSTEC’s strategic significance to Nepal owing to the fact that Nepal is a landlocked country depending on regional connectivity for its economic development. He further stressed that BIMSTEC would allow Nepal to enhance its connectivity in the Bay of Bengal, and the rest of South Asia and South-East Asia through road, sea, air and rail linkages. He said that BIMSTEC is set to rejuvenate and amplify regional integration, a critical need of countries in the region as transnational connectivity projects which existed in the pre-colonial era such as the India-Nepal railway have since disappeared. He added that it would expand Nepal’s exports by connecting it to geopolitically significant port locations in Chittagong, Khulna and Kolkata. He furthermore explained that BIMSTEC in Nepal’s perspective was an ideal platform to enhance its visibility and stake in the Indo-Pacific region, broadly South Asia and South-East Asia. He emphasised on its various facets and its potential implications for Nepal on road and railway links, port connectivity, civil aviation, border infrastructure and tourism. He said that a BIMSTEC was constructed on the basis of consultations and not negotiation agreement between countries, thus, it remains to be seen at what level, intensity and enthusiasm the plans and policies under BIMSTEC have on-ground ramifications. He highlighted that there is also a need to address the social and environmental concern, and development of human resources and association capacity and partnership with the private sector in infrastructure with the view of budget constraints and the need of other socio-economic sectors because engaging them will speed up the pace of connectivity projects. Moreover, he also stressed the need for robust monitoring of the activities of the master plan, so that it is implemented on time as planned.

He concluded his remarks by highlighting some factors which would impact the effectiveness of the BIMSTEC Master Plan. Firstly, strong political will among member states manifested through cooperation, budgeting for identified projects, inclusion of BIMSTEC projects in national development plans are paramount. Secondly, there is a need for appropriate policy and regulatory frameworks for effective implementation. Thirdly, development of bankable objects with economic and financial viability to accelerate infrastructure development is significant. Fourthly, social, environmental and human resource capacity concerns should also be addressed in relation to the plan. Fifthly, owing to needs of other socio-economic sectors and budgetary constraints, involvement and partnerships within the private sector of infrastructure were essential. Lastly, in order to ensure that implementation of plans is effective and punctual, a robust monitoring of activities and mechanisms for the same were required.

Mihir Shekhar Bhonsale started his presentation on “BIMSTEC on Connectivity: India’s Motif” where he highlighted the unique link between South and South-East Asia, Convergence of India’s ‘Act East’ and ‘Neighbourhood First’ policies and commitment to BIMSTEC driven by potential economic rewards of greater connectivity: Growth of coastal states adjacent to Bay of Bengal (Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh); North Eastern Region’s long lost connectivity to Bay of Bengal. He explained India’s transportation system with some facts and figures: India has the largest physical infrastructure in the BIMSTEC region with over 5.89 million km of roads, 67,300 km of railways, 12 major seaports and 4 major international airports. Similarly, he highlighted that the road transport sector accounts for about 87 percent of passenger traffic and 60 percent of freight traffic movement in the country. Lastly he said that the country aims to align the modal mix to global benchmark and promote the development of multi-modal infrastructure. He also stressed in the projects being implemented by India such as Bharatmala (Roads), Sagarmala (Ports), National Rail Plan Vision-2030, 11 Inland waterways declared as national waterways and International Air Connectivity Scheme (IACS) under UDAN to connect North Eastern States with selected international destinations. He also talked about the National Rail Plan (NRP) for India-2030 where he highlighted its aims to formulates strategies based on both operational capacities and commercial policy initiatives to increase modal share of the railways in freight to 45 percent and 58 super critical projects of a total length of 3750 kms costing INR 39,663 crore and 68 critical projects of a total length of 6913 kms costing INR75,736 crore, have been identified for completion by 2024. He stressed on the National Waterways Act 2016 and enlightened the key strategies which are associated with BIMSTEC Projects. Moreover, he highlighted the 10 existing and proposed multimodal and intermodal transport corridors in the BIMSTEC region. He also explained about the synergies between national schemes and the BIMSTEC Master Plan.

Professor Meena Vaidya Malla spoke about how connectivity can be enhanced between the countries and highlighted that Nepal and India shares open borders that run through five Indian states such as Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, West Bengal and Bihar. She said that unregulated cross border movement is a grave threat to security of both the countries and results in authorized movement of people and goods. She further stressed that heinous crimes such as kidnapping, human trafficking, killings, bombings often take place in the borderlands. She said that focusing on border infrastructure and security is essential to bring about the promotion of enhancing connectivity. She enlightened that India-Nepal relationship is characterized by open borders that to some degree are unmanaged. She stressed upon the need for strong mechanisms that regularly monitor and address the bottlenecks in connectivity projects and infrastructures. She said that the commitment from the member states and international development partner is required to achieve the success of the project as there is a heavy reliance on donors for funding. She remarked that the master plan provides a comprehensive strategy and action plan for the sub-regional transport linkage covering roads, airways and water transportation and also promotes transport connectivity among the BIMSTEC member states. However, she said that the effectiveness of the strategy depends upon honest and time bound implementation. She further highlighted that states should also play an active role in that direction and translate promises into performance. She said that there is a need to take more result oriented measures and mechanisms including models, strategies and approaches to make strong transport connectivity a reality.

She stressed that India and Nepal have prioritized the ‘Neighbourhood First policy’ but it needs greater reflection in actions. Moreover, she said that changes in the political level do not affect bilateral relations, therefore, conscious actions are required from both the countries to restructure, revisit and reassess the relationship in a manner that reflects changing realities of regional global politics and fast changing geopolitics along with the changing sentiments of people of the 21^st century which lies on the foundation of justice, equality, good faith and right to self-determination, human rights, human dignity and human security. This is how connectivity can be strengthened in a sustainable way.

Lt. General RK  Sawhney, Senior Fellow at VIF shared how India is investing heavily in infrastructure which will promote regional connectivity. He said that SAARC, which was a vehicle in the past, ceased to retain its meaningful presence and has been replaced by BIMSTEC which promotes joint working mechanism and prosperity. He further stressed that it is of extreme necessity to devote greater time to geo-economics than politics as it is the geo-economy that is driving the growth of the country otherwise it might lead to terrible consequences. He laid emphasis on how connectivity brings about prosperity and stressed on the fact that politics leads to greater dividends that do not benefit anybody. He reiterated that BIMSTEC has lot of scope but funding has been an issue, however growing collaboration is visible and the Padma Bridge is a splendid example of strong collaboration between countries with their available resources. He stressed that connectivity of the Indian subcontinent needs to be restored and greater efforts should be put in areas. He concluded the session stating that the think tanks can make change by putting in efforts and making the political actors aware of these necessities.

Event Report Prepared by Saroj Deo, Research Associate, NIICE.