Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ongoing visit to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan is expected to give a fillip to trade between India and these Central Asian nations, despite China having forged deep trade links in the region.
While Indian officials admit that trade with the Central Asian region, despite a huge demand for generic drugs, leather, expertise in telecommunication, exploration and food processing capabilities, has been abysmally low, experts are optimistic that India can take on China.
Navtej Sarna, Secretary West, External Affairs Ministry, recently pointed out that the Prime Minister’s visit will focus on enhancing trade, which is “not impressive”, but Amiya Chandra, Joint Director-General of Foreign Trade in the Union Commerce and Industry Ministry, says India can compete with China if it focusses on quality instead of quantity, improves credit line and takes trade disputes seriously.
Dr. Chandra, who has recently published a book, India-Central Asia Relations , focussing on the economic dimensions of the ties, says India can still make up for the trade deficit, if it focusses on delivering quality goods.
“There is a lot of resentment against poor quality goods in the Central Asian markets. For India to step in will require a paradigm shift; we need to focus on Q-to-Q, which is moving from quantity to quality,” Dr. Chandra says.
‘Liberal’ extensionsHe suggests enhancing the credit line to the Central Asian nations to match the “liberal” extensions from China, government-to-government agreements, zero tolerance for complaints of trade malpractices and immediate response to trade disputes, as measures to improve ties with the region that holds strategic importance for India.
Dr. Chandra says that between 2000 and 2014, trade between India and the Central Asian republic had been a mere 0.1 per cent of India’s overall trade.
He points out that despite trade increasing sharply during 2013-14 to reach $1,238 million, it is only with Kazakhstan that bilateral trade has grown.
