New Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI) India and leaders of five central Asian countries on Thursday announced setting up of a joint working group to boost connectivity to the region through the Chabahar port in Iran.
During the India-Central Asia Summit hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, the leaders emphasised that connectivity projects could be a force multiplier for trade and economic cooperation and contacts between countries and people.
The leaders also stressed on making concerted efforts to boost trade and investment in sectors such as medicine, healthcare, education, information technology, business process outsourcing, infrastructure, agriculture and agri-processing, energy, space industry, textiles, leather and footwear industry, gems and jewellery.
Trade between India and the central Asian countries is just about two billion dollars, which the leaders said was far below the true potential.
Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon, Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev attended the first India-Central Asia Summit in virtual format.
The five leaders also supported India’s proposal to include Chabahar port in Iran and Turkmenistan’s proposal to include the Turkmenbashi port within the framework of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) that seeks to link the Indian Ocean to the Caspian Sea via the Persian Gulf and onwards into Russia and northern Europe.
Turkmenistan President Berdimuhamedov stressed on the importance of TAPI gas pipeline project that seeks to link oilfields in Turkmenistan through Afghanistan, Pakistan to India.
The leaders agreed that connectivity initiatives should be based on the principles of transparency, broad participation, local priorities, financial sustainability and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries.
India has extended a one billion dollar Line of Credit in 2020 for infrastructure development projects and has offered to provide more training slots and scholarships including customised training programmes to meet the requirements of Central Asian countries.
The leaders paid special attention to the need to establish cooperation between specialised national institutions, including in the fields of finance, renewable energy, information, digital and other advanced technologies.
“In this context, they welcomed the proposal for establishment of an ‘IT/ITES Task Force’ between the IT organizations, IT parks and IT companies of India and the Central Asian countries to work towards greater digitalisation and E-Governance in their countries, as well as business process outsourcing (BPO) by sharing of best practices, knowledge,” the Delhi Declaration adopted at the Summit said.
The sides encouraged the India-Central Asia Business Council (ICABC) to accelerate efforts to promote business linkages, facilitate greater understanding of business regulations and incentivise mutual investments.
They leaders also took note of the proposal to create an India-Central Asia Investment Club under ICABC to promote investment opportunities in each other’s countries.