Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor

 Myanmar recently announced its support to China backed Silk Road initiative and Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor.
About BCIM:

• The issue of promoting connectivity between the underdeveloped south western region of China, which includes Yunnan and three other provinces, and Myanmar, India and Bangladesh has been under discussion since the early 1990s in a Track-II process known as the 'Kunming Initiative'
• The initiative gained momentum following the formulation of China’s Western Region Development Strategy and India’s Look East Policy in the1990s and various measures undertaken by Bangladesh and Myanmar to accelerate the pace of regional cooperation.
• The BCIM received a new lease of life when Chinese premier Li Keqiang proposed to construct the corridor during his meeting with the then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on 18 May 2013.
• The proposed 2,800-km long EC will traverse from Kolkata via Benapole/Petrapole on the
• India-Bangladesh border to Dhaka and Sylhet before again entering India near Silchar in Assam. After coursing through Imphal, it moves to the Tamu-Kalewa friendship road in Myanmar. After crossing Mandalay and Lashio the road will reach Kunming via Ruili, Longling and Dali.
• The road is currently motorable except for two stretches of around 200 km each, one from Silchar to Imphal in India and the other from Kalewa to Monywa in Myanmar.

Analysis:

• The Bangladesh–China–India–Myanmar (BCIM) Economic Corridor will increase socioeconomic development and trade in South Asia. The initiative seeks to improve connectivity and infrastructure, energy resources, agriculture, and trade and investment
• In 2005, trade between Bangladesh, China, India, and Myanmar was 7.99 per cent of world trade. Since then, trade has grown both within the region and with outside countries.
• Together, the BCIM countries account for 9 per cent of the global landmass and 40 per cent of the global population.
• Intra-regional trade among BCIM member states amounted to 5 per cent of total BCIM trade in 2012, as opposed to ASEAN, where 35 per cent of total trade is intra-regional. The BCIM Corridor will allow all four countries to exploit existing complementarities in trade — in terms of both sectors and products. Myanmar is a primary goods exporter and has abundant cheap labour. India has positioned itself as a leading services exporter. China is the largest manufacturing exporter in the world; and Bangladesh, like many other South Asian countries, engages in both services export and low-end manufactured goods.
• BCIM sub-regional cooperation can capitalise on hydrocarbons in Bangladesh, hydro-electric and mineral resources in Northeast India, natural gas reserves in Myanmar, and coal reserves in East Indian states like Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and China’s Yunnan province. The potential for Northeast India to export energy to power-starved Bangladesh under the auspices of BCIM’s institutional structure is particularly strong
• India’s engagement with Myanmar will contribute to India’s energy security as India is currently heavily dependent on Gulf oil imports. Myanmar will also be able to engage in export diversification, as it is currently over-reliant on China and Thailand for energy exports.

By: Vishal