China Town in Sanand, economic & trade tie-ups and strategic geopolitical understanding is on the agenda
The banks of river Sabarmati defined India’s fate when Mahatma Gandhi launched the non-violent Satyagraha from his Ashram to free India from the British Raj. Nearly a century later, the river will witness some defining moments in modern history when prime minister Narendra Modi and Chinese president Xi Jinping will walk in the park on Wednesday evening.
After an early dinner, the shrewd politicians will get down to tough business issues ranging from international border disputes, to economic investments, the Chinese proposal to revise and revive the traditional Silk Route and a larger strategy to strengthen the South Asian region.
Gujarat is hosting the incumbent premier of a major country for the first time and the state has much to gain in the process. The highlights are a 10sq km China Town in Sanand, investments in excess of $1 billion, tie ups with the province of Guangdong and Gujarat for sister development, Ahmedabad’s tie up with Guangzhou and an MoU with the Chinese Development Bank for industrial development.
One of the agreements to be signed during Jiping’s visit will be about a 10 sq km industrial park and subsequently other near Ahmedabad in Gujarat which would attract investments in excess of $1 billion. The main focus of this park would be power transmission and generation equipment manufacturing, but subsequently, a smart city will emerge with residences, schools, sport complexes, recreational centre, hotels and restaurants, housing thousands of people over the next few years. This investment will greatly boost Ahmedabad’s realty stocks, placed at a comfortable distance of 22km from Sanand.
In the countdown to the visit in last week, some criticism and cynicism followed the news of Gujarat being Jinping’s first port of arrival in the country. As many theories as Indo-China issues are floating around. Did Modi’s apparent chemistry with Japanese premier Shinzo Abe make Jinping uncomfortable? Is China keen to humour Modi, who is politically a reflection of Jinping, for furthering its economic foothold in Asia? Or is Gujarat on the map simply because it happens to be Modi’s birthday and the former chief minister of the state wants to reciprocate the warm welcome accorded to him on his previous visit?
Though speculation is an exhilarating exercise, the answers will only emerge in the fine print of the post-mortem of the visit.
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