The Left Front government in India’s northeastern state of Tripura wants more investment from Bangladesh, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has said.
“We welcome more investment from Bangladesh, as India and Bangladesh are natural partners,” Sarkar told journalists in state capitral Agartala.
“India and Bangladesh are interlinked and mutually dependent. The two neighbours must share their resources and advantages.”
Hasina expressed her government’s readiness to set up power plants in India’s northeast and boost trade with India, Nepal and Bhutan.
She said Bangladesh would allow India to use Chittagong and Mongla sea ports as it wanted to improve all types of communication facilities with the adjoining countries to further improve the trade and commerce and people-to-people relations.
Ties between the two countries have shown steady improvement as political and economic engagements between New Delhi and Dhaka have gathered pace. Recent reports said imports, especially textiles and raw jute, from Bangladesh had gone up 85 percent to nearly $300 million.
Sarkar said India and Bangladesh should share their wealth and resources for the benefit of the people.
“I already told Hasina that the Tripura government is ready to give 100 MW (from its share) from the just-installed 726-MW Palatana power project, being commissioned by the ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) in southern Tripura.”
The Communist leader has repeatedly asked the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to be more generous towards Bangladesh and its issues.
Bangladesh’s snack-beverage maker PRAN is already investing in a TK 10 crore manufacturing facility in Bodhjungnagar near Agartala to process fruits like pineapple for which Tripura is famous.
The Tripura Industrial Development Corporation (TIDC) has allotted two acres to PRAN for the agro-food product unit.
All logistics for setting up the unit which would earn foreign money and create scope for employment would be provided by TIDC.
Set up in 1980, PRAN which manufacture snacks, confectionery, juices, beverages, culinary products, dairy and premium rice, exports to 75 countries.
Bangladesh’s Nitol-Niloy group has signed a memorandum of understanding with Agartala entrepreneurs for setting up an Rs 70 crore Tyre making unit at Bodhjungnagar.
Tripura business leaders want this group which is setting up two paper mills in Chattak in Sylhet region not far from Tripura’s border to come to the state and set up a similar paper mill.
“We have a very good supply of the raw material. A paper mill here will be a good investment for Nitol because it will go well with their plants in Sylhet,” said M L Debnath of the Agartala Chamber of Commerce.
He said Bangladesh companies can also invest in many other areas like fertilisers, sourcing available material in Tripura.
Mani Shankar Aiyar, one-time India’s minister for the Department of Northeastern Region (DONER), had said once that India should allow Bangladesh capital to freely invest in Northeast.
Speaking at the launch of author Subir Bhaumik’s “Troubled Periphery: Crisis of India’s Northeast” in Delhi, Aiyar had attacked India’s private sector for ‘totally neglecting” the northeast and said Bangladesh capital may find investing in the region more gainful because of geographical proximity.
Manik Sarkar seems to be following that clue.
Source: bdnews24
