The Dare Devils perform during the inauguration of the Indo-Asean car rally in Guwahati on Monday. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, Nov. 22: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the development of the Northeast and its ?integration with the larger regional processes? was one of the prime determining factors of India?s engagement with regional co-operation.

Flagging off the first Indo-Asean car rally at Guwahati?s Nehru Stadium, he said ?until colonialism intervened, this region was an integrated whole?.

He described the rally as an instrument for ?rediscovering the essential oneness and unity that bond our countries together?.

?In an era of globalisation, interconnectivity, whether within a region or between regions, has to be comprehensive, covering all dimensions ? human, infrastructural, economic, technological and cultural. By building bridges of understanding and interaction, we will increase and widen the circles of prosperity and growth.?

The Prime Minister asserted at a news conference later that the ?initiative is not just a flash in the pan?.

He said: ?I have directed the Planning Commission and Doner (ministry for development of the northeastern region) to make sustained efforts for the development of the region and review the progress on a permanent basis.?

Earlier in the day, external affairs minister K. Natwar Singh described the Northeast as the ?gateway to Southeast Asia?. He said efforts for intensive Indo-Asean economic integration have to begin in this part of the country.

Natwar Singh was speaking at a meeting with representatives of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) to chalk out a roadmap for ?Asianisation of the Indian economy? through the Northeast.

The meeting was held at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus in north Guwahati.

?The Northeast has to adopt a trade-led growth strategy as it is through the trade routes that the region can unshackle itself from the evils of poverty, unemployment and economic backwardness,? the external affairs minister said.

He said India?s ?look-east? policy had opened up new opportunities for growth and a new development paradigm for the region. The minister said the next Saarc summit, to be held in Bangladesh in January, would pick up the thread of today?s discussion.

Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi said the Prime Minister had assured him that Delhi would revive the Guwahati-Bangkok air service and introduce flights from the state to other Asean countries.

Asean secretary-general Ong Keng Yong, on his first visit to Guwahati, said he saw ?striking similarities? between the Northeast and the Asean nations. He encapsulated his strategy for the Northeast in five Ts ? trade, training, tourism, transportation and technology.

?Many of our countries do not have advantages like the Northeast, but we still attract tourists,? Yong said.

On transportation, he said Guwahati could be the regional hub of air links.

Dipankar Chatterjee of the Confederation of Indian Industry urged Delhi to declare the Northeast as a ?backward economic region? and realign its strategy accordingly.