Emerging Scenario of Trade Potentialities of North-East India: Challenges and Opportunities

The North-East Region (NER) of India which comprises of eight states, namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura shares most of its boundary with China, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar. The NER accounts for about eight per cent of the country's geographical area and about four per cent of population. Tribals account for more than 30 per cent of the total population of NER. Inadequate and poor infrastructure, inhospitable terrain and a com¬paratively late start in the development process are some of the reasons for economic back¬wardness of the region. However, the NER has certain strengths in different angles to achieve economic development in easy way. From the geo-political angle, the NER is located in a strategic location as it is bounded by these several foreign countries. Naturally it has got both advantages and disadvantages due to its location. So far advantages are concerned it is connected with the South-East Asian countries mainly China, Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia and Indonesia etc where almost half of the world’s population live. There is no doubt that this vast population could have great advantage for establishing any kind of trade and commerce. But the vary geographical condition basically the rivers and mountains of the country stand as a barrier and create geo–political tensions which ultimately act as most disadvantages factors in creating a conducive atmosphere in the path of developing trade relation among those countries.