CII setting up Indo-China border trade task force

Tuesday, 15 July 2003, 19:30 IST
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KOLKATA: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is setting up a task force to advise the government on avenues for business with China through the Nathu La pass in Sikkim. The pass, at a height of about 14,000 feet, will be opened as a trade route after New Delhi and Beijing agreed on it during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to China last month. The task force will advise West Bengal in particular, as it is nearest to Sikkim with a port and an airport, CII's eastern chapter chief Sanjay Budhia told IANS. The CII has already given West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya a preliminary paper and is on course to set up the task force that will provide definite guidelines for trade between the two countries through Nathu La. The task force, the details of which are being worked out, will try to project trade volumes through the icy-cold pass that was a commercial route until 1962, when India and China fought a war over a border dispute. "The task force will calculate border trade volumes and suggest infrastructure investment structures," Budhia said adding, "We will advise both the state government and the centre and all relevant bodies". The CII expects bilateral trade between the two countries to be somewhere near $20 billion by 2008. The CII paper to Bhattacharya stressed on turning the Nathu La pass into an effective avenue for raising tourism revenues. Budhia has suggested the starting of a bus service between the West Bengal town of Siliguri and Lhasa in Tibet via Nathu La. The CII has also underlined the need for developing the Bagdogra airport in Siliguri to handle more cargo consignments and an international standard road connection between Siliguri and southern West Bengal, where the ports are located. West Bengal is striving hard to bite into the trade pie that Sikkim will enjoy with the re-opening of the Nathu La pass. West Bengal wanted the ancient Jelep La route between India and Tibet through the state's Kalimpong district to be opened, but the proposal was not accepted. The state has now roped in CII to help it claim a good share of the trade through Nathu La. The CII has an office in Shanghai.
Source: IANS