Vientiane: Describing the India-ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) car rally as a "journey into future," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today (Nov 30, 2004) said this demonstrated the possibilities that could come about in trade, tourism and people-to-people contact by bringing the countries together.

Flagging off the rally on its next stretch along with other ASEAN leaders here, Singh said that this region and Asia as a whole "are marching with confidence to meet the challenges of future.

"Our countries are endowed with tremendous human talent and natural resources. The challenge before us is to put in place cooperative regional activities that will promote development and collective security for all our people," he said.

India's growing interaction with ASEAN was "critical" to fulfilling the promise of the 21st century being an Asian century, he said adding that by building such bridges of understanding and interaction "we will increase and widen the circles of prosperity and growth."

"This is an era of globalisation wherein inter-connectivity, whether within a region or between regions, has to be comprehensive. It has to encompass and integrate the human, infrastructural, economic, technological and cultural dimensions," he said.

Singh, who had flagged off the rally from Guwahati on November 22, wished the rally all success.

The third India-ASEAN summit, which has just been concluded, will be seen as a milestone in this journey of common destiny, he said.

Singh recalled that while flagging off the rally in Guwahati, he had stated that in organising this, they were doing more than setting in motion a rally that would go through nine countries, traversing over 8,000 kilometres through some of the most picturesque regions of the world.

"It gives me great pleasure to see and experience once again the high spirit of adventure and sport among the participants of the rally gathered here today, as you prepare to proceed to the final leg to Indonesia," Singh said.

"In future such overland travel will become commonplace, as it was centuries ago. But today there are considerable hurdles for overland travel, and I am glad that this rally proves to the world at large that difficulties can be overcome," he added.

Earlier briefing reporters on the rally, C M Bhandari, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, said that there had been no breakdown of any participant so far and all had reached Vientiane. Bhandari, who is coordinating the rally on behalf of the MEA, said the most difficult stretch of the rally was between Mandaly (Myanmar) and Thachilok (Myanmar-Thailand border).

The participants reached Phatsanulok on the Lao-Thailand border last night (Nov 29, 2004), he said adding that there was tremendous response and participation by the people along the route.

A 75-year-old participant, who drove from Kanyakumari to Guwahati to join the rally, was still in the race.