India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor will create seamless trade link: Goyal
The proposed corridor includes railways, roadways, energy pipelines, and clean energy infrastructure, including undersea cables
Union minister of commerce & industry Piyush Goyal on Friday said that the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) will create seamless trade linkages across continents and bring down logistics costs by up to 30% with reducing transportation time by 40%.
“We will not only be linking trade; we will be linking civilizations and cultures — from Southeast Asia to the Gulf, from the Middle East to Central Europe,” he said while addressing a roundtable on connectivity and economic growth in New Delhi.
Highlighting its potential reach, Goyal said IMEC could even enhance connectivity to Africa through the Middle East.
The proposed corridor includes railways, roadways, energy pipelines, and clean energy infrastructure, including undersea cables.
“India is already in discussions with Singapore on clean energy transmission. We are also engaged in dialogue with Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” he said.
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Goyal underscored the corridor’s emphasis on sustainability and digital connectivity.
“This initiative respects sovereignty and territorial integrity. It is not about dominance or creating economic unions. It is a partnership built on mutual trust, inclusivity and sustainability,” he said.
He outlined five key suggestions as a way forward for the IMEC initiative.
First, the importance of viewing IMEC through the lens of a public-private partnership (PPP) as leaving the initiative solely to the government would limit its efficiency and financial viability. This approach would ensure smarter and more cost-effective planning, as the private sector can propose solutions that reflect practical utility, he added.
His second suggestion is to focus on regulatory connectivity. He advocated for greater alignment in trade processes, customs procedures, and paperwork among participating nations. Citing India’s ongoing regulatory collaboration with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as an example, he said successful implementation of the corridor would require seamless cross-border movement without excessive checkpoints. Interoperable systems, digitization, electric vehicle charging ecosystems, and synchronized regulations.
He suggested that common digital payment systems, such as India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), could serve as a model for enabling seamless financial transactions. With periodic settlement in globally accepted reserve currencies, such mechanisms could reduce transactional friction and banking costs, he said.
Speaking about the third suggestion, Goyal stressed the need for innovative financing models to support both the development of the corridor and the trade it will generate.
He called for active involvement of multilateral financial agencies and suggested exploring instruments like green bonds and the creation of long-term “IMEC Bonds”, to fund this transcontinental infrastructure in a sustainable and future-proof manner.
His fourth recommendation was to have active engagement with industry bodies and trade associations, asserting that their insights are essential for designing a corridor that aligns with the real needs of businesses. Such collaboration would help identify existing bottlenecks, promote best practices, and better integrate economies by removing trade frictions, he said.
He proposed to rope in think tanks and academia to the visioning and design process as his fifth point. He focussed on the need to harness their creativity, research strength, and long-term thinking. He called this a well-rounded package of five initiatives that could help IMEC evolve into a robust, viable, and inclusive project.
