ID :
376288
Tue, 08/04/2015 - 14:01
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ASEAN-India Total Trade At US$77 Billion From 2014 To Date

By Chandravathani Sathasivam and Mohd Iswandi Kasan Anuar KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 (Bernama) -- Trade relations between ASEAN and India have grown significantly with total trade rising to U$77 billion (US$1 = RM3.86) from 2014 to date from US$44 billion during the 2009-2010 period. Indian External Affairs, East, Secretary Anil Wadhwa said the ASEAN-Indian Trade in Goods Agreement signed in 2010 had definitely helped in bringing about a steep spike in trade volume. Despite recording an average annual growth rate of 12 per cent, he said the figure was low when compared with trade figures of some other ASEAN's dialogue partners such as China, the United States and New Zealand. "The entry of ASEAN-India Trade in Services and the ASEAN-India Investment Agreement would open up further avenues to channelise more big ticket investments both ways. "And this, in turn will also help in augmenting bilateral trade in goods. We'll definitely see some positive trade growth between India and ASEAN in the coming years," he told Bernama in an interview on the sidelines of the 48th Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) here, Tuesday. Anil said the policy of foreign direct investment introduced by the Indian Government under the new leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had opened up more opportunities for foreign countries to invest in India especially in the services sector. He said the Indian government had launched a series of major national programmes to facilitate investment, innovation, skills development and building best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure for automobile, component, aviation, biotechnology, logistics and mining. An Indian newspaper, DNA, reported the regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) pact between India and ASEAN, which is expected to conclude later this year, would help boost trade to US$200 billion by 2022. Asked on other new sectors that ASEAN businesses could tap into in India, Anil said India is currently focusing on modernisation of urban settlements, building smart cities and empowering citizens through access to digital services sector. "Now, these are the areas where multinational companies from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand have proven their competencies, and we would be happy to see them partake in the large business opportunities that India has to offer," he said. It was learnt that the Modi-led Indian Government is aiming to upgrade its urban cities by developing 100 Smart Cities across the country through an investment of US$1.2 billion along with funding from private investors. On another development, Anil said India looked forward to promote mutually beneficial bilateral relations and work institutionally with ASEAN under a conducive and stable region to support the establishment of the Asean Economic Community by the end of this year. He said India-ASEAN had projects worth about US$40 million in various stages of implementation in a wide range of sectors from agriculture to environment to space science under the Plan of Action 2010-2015. He also pointed out that connectivity was India's strategic priority, adding that the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway was to be completed by 2016 and could be extended to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The highway would be further linked to ports in ASEAN countries and integrate with the Special Economic Zones, he said. --BERNAMA

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