Sonowal bats for making Act East Policy 'more proactive'

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday said the Union government's 'Act East Policy' needs to be made more proactive by promoting India's economic cooperation, cultural ties and ties with South East Asian countries.

Sonowal met Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan here to discuss ways to successfully implement the 'Act East Policy', which is the brain-child of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and ensure that the North-East region benefits from it.

The policy needs to be made more proactive by promoting India's economic cooperation, cultural ties and friendly and strategic relationship with South East Asian countries by consistently harping on continuous engagement at bilateral and multilateral levels taking Assam and North East as the heart of the policy, Sonowal said.

Sonowal requested the Union Minister to use this policy as a tool to furthering economic initiatives.

He also said that continuous engagements of all the South East Asian countries in the fields of education, cultural exchanges and people to people contact would also go a long way to make Act East Policy more successful.

The chief minister said since connectivity is another core area which can bring different geographic entities closer, he requested the Union Minister to use his office to fine tune the institutional mechanism for improved airways, roadways, waterways, railways and information ways in the north eastern region.

If this is done, North East will get the real benefits of being the active stake holder in the country's Act East Policy, Sonowal added.