Pranab Lauds Modi's Act East Policy, Says it Will Open New Markets

Kolkata: The Act East policy of the central government will open new markets like Myanmar and the ASEAN countries for eastern Indian entrepreneurs, President Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday.

"The Look East policy of the government has opened new doors of opportunities for entrepreneurs and with it, Act East policy too would open new markets of Myanmar, ASEAN and some other countries for the entrepreneurs of Eastern India," Mukherjee said at a programem here.

Lauding the Look East and Act East policies, he went deep into the past as he recollected that India in the east served as the hub of international trade right from the times of the Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Greek civilisations.

"It was the eastern part of India that had fuelled and sustained the European and British revolutions in the 16th and 17th centuries and it was here that the great industrialisation dream of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru in early post independent India, took shape," he said while inaugurating the new building of Bharat Chamber of Commerce.

Mukherjee recollected his past duties as the country's finance minister when he had an opportunity to shape and foster policies aimed at revolutionising the East's economic growth and said the same may be played out during the next decade or so too.

He urged entrepreneurs to avail the opportunities and drive the engines of growth by utilising the growth models and techniques.

The president said the task should be to ensure equitable growth-the growth that is not limited to the affluent colonies of Kolkata and other state capitals, but one that reaches the villages in the hinterland.

"India has to continue its march forward and has to sustain the growth rate that it has achieved during the decades of post liberalisation and in this work the eastern part of India will have to fire the engine of growth," he said.

The president expressed the hope that the recently-passed GST Act will ensure transition cost and double taxation is minimised by evolving a common national market that will benefit businessmen and traders.