India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor Will Create Export Opportunities for us: Ashwini Vaishnaw to CNN-News18

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics & Information Technology, told Zakka Jacob, Managing Editor of CNN-News18, exclusively that the India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor will create new export opportunities for India.

In one of the highlights of the G-20 summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor, an ambitious project aimed at fostering economic growth and countering China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The new economic corridor was jointly announced by the leaders of the US, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union on the sidelines of the summit.

The corridor will have an eastern corridor connecting India to the Gulf region and a northern corridor connecting the Gulf region to Europe. It would also include a railway and ship-rail transit network and road transport routes.

Elaborating on the genesis of the idea, Vaishnaw said, “Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a clear vision that India, the Middle-East and Europe have a common thinking and good alignment. The time has come for us to look at an economic corridor which is a combination of shipping and rail, so we can send goods from the west coast ports of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala to the ports of the Middle-East. From there, the goods can be transported via railway corridor, all the way to Europe."

On what the corridor means for India, he said, “This will reduce the distance between India and Europe by thousands of kilometres. It will create a new corridor around which many industries will get developed. India will get new export opportunities. We will also get the opportunity to export our technology. E.g. In telecom, we are exporting equipment to more than 40 countries. In one of the bilaterals, India’s telecom equipment has been accepted as part of the programme in the US. Similarly, India will be able to find opportunities to design the projects, execute and export railway locomotives, coaches and wheels to the Middle-East and Europe through this corridor."

He said, “Communication is an integral part of this corridor. There will be a major optical fibre corridor all along this transportation corridor. Gas pipeline can also become part of it."