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The Indian central government has granted Rs 820 million (82 crore) to the government of West Bengal for developing infrastructure at land ports on the Indo-Bangladesh border, an internet report said Thursday, quoting a report by Business Standard of India.
"The state government has received Rs 820 million from union government for developing infrastructure on land ports including Petropole, Fulbari and Medhipour. The infrastructure development work would begin shortly," said chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, while inaugurating 19th Industrial India Trade Fair, jointly organised by government of West Bengal, Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO).
President of The Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Mir Nasir Hossain said, "The current formal trade between the two countries is around $2.17 billion, mainly dominated by Indian exports. Indian export figure would cross $4.0 billion, if informal trade is incorporated. There is urgent need to address this trade imbalance."
Responding, Bhattacharjee said, "The issues raised by FBCCI and other chambers of commerce and industry from Bangladesh is pertinent, and trade-felicitating measures should be taken so as to correct this imbalance."
Meanwhile another report by the Economic Times from Mumbai adds,: India's foreign trade landscape is slowly undergoing a change.
Apart from China, trade with countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and a few other Asian peers like Iran and Thailand is growing at a fast pace.
Imports from these countries (except Thailand) have grown by more than 80 per cent during the period of April-September '05.
According to the commerce ministry figures on India's foreign trade, among the various sources of non-oil imports, imports from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh posted increases of 80.5 per cent, 83.9 per cent and 81.6 per cent, respectively, during April-September '05, albeit on a small base.
Together these economies account for less than 5.0 per cent of the country's non-oil imports.
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