India Wants To Grow And Prosper With Neighbours: Prabhu

NEW DELHI:The South Asian region could cooperate in the fields of agriculture, water conservation and climate change besides trade and tourism to make the region more prosperous and inter-connected, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said here.

Prabhu, speaking at the launch of the RIS South Asia Development and Cooperation Report 2015, said the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region despite being home to nearly one-fourth of the world's population lacks the clout it should rightfully have because of poor development.

Remarking on the connectivity projects being launched by SAARC countries, Prabhu said India's policy towards neighbours is that it wants to be "extremely friendly towards neighbours and wants them to be equally friendly towards it".

"We want to grow together and prosper together, and we are willing to pay a price to make that happen" by way of building infrastructure projects for the use of neighbours.

He said that while the ASEAN region, which shares some of the rivers, has prospered, the South Asian region has not done so due to infighting.

"It is time to cooperate by leaving the challenges out and see the possibilities of benefits. Then, automatically they will realise that the challenges no longer exist," Prabhu said.

He said with South Asia being predominantly agriculture driven, the countries should focus on cooperation in this sector, especially on new seeds, less water consuming crops and heat resistant crops.

Besides, the countries could cooperate in water conservation and use, the overarching issue of climate change, flood control, in energy and tourism.

Prabhu also said that the region can focus on enhancing trade, which would in turn boost the GDP growth and improve the human development index of the region, which is poor.

"The development should be people centric. As regards India, we have a responsibility and we always feel we must take care of our neighbours in a way that we will take care of our brothers and sisters. We consider this as a bounden responsibility given to us by history but also an obligation we have taken upon ourselves which we feel we should do to promote goodwill in the countries and the region," he said.

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