ABSTRACT
India’s mammoth market size, its fast-growing economy, and geographical proximity make India a naturally attractive partner for the ASEAN countries. The ASEAN–India region, with aggregate GDP of $4.5 trillion and population of 2 billion in 2015, is an economic powerhouse that has been growing steadily at an average rate of 6 percent over the last 15 years. It is expected to grow at an even higher average rate in the next two decades or so. ASEAN’s four member nations – Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, with a combined population of 365 million and GDP of US$1.9 trillion in 2015 – share maritime boundaries in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea with India’s four high growth states – West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, with a combined population of 270 million and GDP of US$450 billion. Myanmar shares its 1000-mile land border with India’s four Northeastern states, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, and Nagaland, abutting Assam and West Bengal, two larger Indian states having their land borders with Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim. The transport corridor from the Indo-Myanmar border runs through the state of Assam and Siligury town in West Bengal, connecting India’s heartland through the state of Bihar on the northern side and the port city of Kolkata on the southern side. Despite such contiguity and buoyancy in the economies in the region, the cross-border trade flow between ASEAN countries and India has been stagnating for the last 15 years, defying gravity models.
