AGARTALA, July 9 (TIWN): Former Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Dr.Dipu Moni and Bangladesh delegation would be arriving today at Tripura via Akhaura border to attend TRIPURA CONCLAVE at Sukanta Academy organized by TRIPURAINFOWAY. TRIPURA conclave will begin at 3pm.

The conclave focuses on the progress of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Forum for Regional Cooperation (BCIM), a sub-regional organization of Asian nations that aims at greater integration of trade and investment.

To boost trade ties in South Asia, it had now become imperative to link Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar in a circuit.
Focusing on overseas investment opportunities in Tripura, TRIPURAINFOWAY MD Saumen Sarker and Convenor Subir Bhaumik  said, "For any investment, three components are considered the base - proximity to a larger market, peace and power, which are now more in evidence in Tripura compared to other northeastern states. Now we need pragmatism at the policy level."

Former Bangladesh foreign minister Dipu Moni will deliver the keynote address, while Ambassador Aloke Sen, who has headed India's mission in Myanmar, Cambodia and Turkey, expert from Institute of Chinese Studies Jabin Jacob and noted author Sudeep Chakraborty will speak on the hope BCIM holds out for the northeast.
The BCIM corridor is envisaged to pass through Calcutta, Dhaka, Chittagong, Mandalay in Myanmar and Kunming.

India’s Look-East policy initiative is seen as capable of ending the long neglect of the country’s Northeast by linking it to the arc of prosperity in south-east Asia. But it is also seen as giving India a “strategic , cultural and economic space” to the East , which is denied to it in the West due to the volatile and fluid situation in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the rest of Middle East and Central Asia.   Delhi is aware of the importance of working the ‘Look East” through the country’s Northeastern region to end decades of isolation suffered by this insurgency-ravaged region that is remote from the Indian mainland and to which it hangs tenuously through a 21-kms wide corridor. But after  two decades of policy interventions within the broad canvas of  India’s Look East Initiative, it is time to assess its impact  and focus on policy options for the future, especially in view of the challenges faced while trying to access South-east Asia through India’s Northeast .  

Now a fresh dimension has been added to the 'Look East' policy. India is pursuing  seriously two regional groupings -- BCIM (Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar) that grew out of the Kunming Initiative in the late 1990s, and BIMSTEC , an initiative that involves Bay of Bengal countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

Both BCIM and BIMSTEC ( whose headquarters will be located at Dhaka) pursued alongside India's 'Look East" could change the face of India's Northeast.

It is therefore essential for the Northeastern states like Tripura to understand the multi-lateral processes involved in these regional groupings and the national foreign policy initiative that might gain traction under the new government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on record having said India's future lies in the East in this century which he has called as 'Asian Century'.

Tripura Conclave, an one-day policy workshop organized by the state's most popular website www.tripurainfoway.com. will seek to bring together experts who will unravel the dynamics of the regional groupings and how they are taken forward, how our nearest neighbour Bangladesh is playing into it and its outlook on India's Northeast , specially Tripura and how a state like Tripura, which has long suffered the pangs of distance and remoteness, can leverage the emerging Asian geo-politics to make good its own potential for economic growth and social progress . 

Ultimately, this is an exercise to understand the emerging geopolitics of Asia, its challenges and possibilities and to chart a course for our dear state Tripura, so that we can covert our disadvantages into an advantages and prosper.

Inauguration of Tripura Conclave by Hon. Chief Secretary Dr. S.K.Panda IAS  at 3pm.

Welcome Note by Saumen Sarker, MD, Tripurainfoway.Com  & Vice President, Global Network & Infrastructure Solutions, Bank of America Corporation, New York.

Dignitaries & Experts to Attend :

Dr. Dipu Mani, Hon. Former Foreign Minister of Bangladesh

Mr. Matlub Hossain, Chief of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce

Representative of Bangladesh Foreign Ministry

India's leading China expert                                                                   Alok Sen

Dr. Jabin Jacob                                                                                    Hon. Former Ambassador of India

Institute of Chinese Studies                                                                  

New Delhi

Subir Bhaumik                                                                                     Sudeep Chakrabarti 

Former BBC Correspondent                                                                   Former Associate Editor of India Today

Expert in BCIM, Eastern India Affairs

Officials of  US, UK, German, China and Japan Consulates of Eastern India