NEW DELHI: It is not just Iran’s Chabahar port and connectivity to Eurasia that has caught attention of the Modi government.
India plans to set up a SEZ in Sittwe in Myanmar where it has already built a port. The proposed SEZ by India will rival Chinese SEZ located 80 km down of strategically-located Sittwe as Delhi plans to make it as an economic hub.
The aim of the SEZ is to help expand India’s footprints in South East Asia amid China plans for massive road and port connectivity projects in the region as part of its One Belt One Road initiative. India’s plan for SEZ was explained by MoS external affairs VK Singh at the India-Asean Foreign Ministers meet at Laos earlier this week.
“India remains committed in its support for implementation of the master plan on Asean connectivity as well as and the post-2015 agenda for Asean connectivity. Even as we work to enhance our physical connectivity and explore the extension of the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway into Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam, I urge Thailand and Myanmar to join hands and find solutions for the conclusion of the motor vehicles agreement and I would like to invite Asean countries to participate in the Sittwe SEZ,” he said.