Shillong: After the Bangkok initiative in the face of last year's North East Trade and Investment Opportunities Week organized there, India was looking to other South Asian countries like Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam for similar moves, DONER Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said today.

Aiyar said an ASEAN initiative was on the anvil by January 2009 when he visits Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. However, he did not divulge any specific plan by the government, saying it would be announced soon.

The Bangkok initiative was a "good beginning" in sensitising Thailand's political establishment and captains of industry to the dynamics of investing in the economic development of India's north-eastern states, he said.

There were about 35 sectors in which contacts have been established between the firms operating in India's north-east region and Thailand after the meet held in October last year.

Referring to the Look East Policy, Aiyar said, "a lot needs to be done internally, that later has to be given an external dimension".

"The Look East Policy of the Central government is now being viewed in a North East perspective, which will eventually be subsumed with the ASEAN initiative," the minister said, adding that the Centre has motivated interaction with other countries, especially those of the South Asian region, in this regard.
Source : PTI