India, Burma sign power deal
Updated
India will lend Burma $US84 million for a power project and steel plant.
The deal has been signed in Rangoon between between India's commerce minister, Shri Jairam Remesh, and Burma's planning minister, Soe Tha.
The $US130 million joint Kaladan project is meant to improve access to India's landlocked northeastern states via the Kaladan river.
Both India and China are competing for influence in Burma to get their hands on its natural gas reserves.
Beijing's huge natural gas and oil pipeline, leading from the Andaman Sea to China's southwestern province of Yunnan, is also planned to start soon.
