ASEAN to step-up India's economic engagement

Cebu, Jan 14: India and the ten ASEAN countries considered newinitiatives to step up India's economic engagement with South-East Asiaand reviewed progress in negotiations on a Free Trade Area (FTA)agreement at their fifth annual summit here today.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pushed for the early conclusion ofthe India-ASEAN FTA agreement, which he believes is an importantinitiative to promote greater economic synergy between India and theASEAN region.

"I shall explore steps that both sides can take to hasten theconclusion of this important agreement," Dr Singh had said beforeleaving for Cebu from Delhi yesterday.

The Prime Minister arrived on this central Philippines island lastnight to attend the India-ASEAN Summit today and the 2nd East AsiaSummit (EAS) tomorrow as part of India's bid to elevate its engagementwith South East Asia and East Asia to qualitatively new levels and givea fresh impetus to its "Look East Policy" launched in 1992.

Dr Singh said India's participation in both the summits was areflection of the increasing significance of the ''easternorientation'' of India's foreign policy and its quest for closerengagement with the countries of this region.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee was here on January 11and 12 for the ministerial meetings ahead of the two summits beforeleaving for a visit to Pakistan.

Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, on his part, attendedthe ASEAN Economic Ministers(AEM)-India Consultation Meeting and otherpreparatory events before the summits.

At the AEM-India meeting, the two sides made a breakthrough on the "negative list" in the proposed India-ASEAN FTA.

"ASEAN agreed to India's proposal for maintaining a Negative Listof 490 items with trade coverage not exceeding five per cent by bothsides," an official statement had said after the meeting.

"During the meeting, there was a broad consensus among theMinisters that ASEAN-India FTA needs to be concluded early not merelyfor reasons of bilateral trade but also for larger strategic reasons,"the statement said.

The two sides agreed that negotiators would meet and resolve the remaining outstanding issues, preferably by July, 2007.

The meeting took stock of the status of negotiations for the FTAand discussed broad principles pertaining to modalities for tariffelimination and tariff reduction.

Mr Kamal Nath told his counterparts that India had already offeredproposals for tariff concessions which provided satisfactory marketaccess to ASEAN countries. He urged ASEAN member-countries to providereciprocal market access for India's exports. He also expressed concernabout ASEAN's Sensitive Lists and urged the member- countries to reviewand reduce it.

India-ASEAN trade has grown from 6.87 billion dollars in 1999-90to 21.3 billion dollars in 2005-06. A target of 30 billion dollars hasbeen set for the current year.

The India-ASEAN Summit and the EAS were originally scheduled formid-December but Philippines postponed the 12th ASEAN Summit and allother related events because of concerns over an approaching typhoon.

The India-ASEAN summit will also review the ongoing cooperation invarious fields, including information technology, economic assistanceto less developed CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) countries,tourism, transportation and infrastructure.

ASEAN brings together Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Apart from the 10 ASEAN members and India, the EAS will be attended by Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

India sees its "Look East Policy" not merely as an external economicpolicy but also as a strategic shift in its vision of the world and itsplace in the evolving global economy. It is also India's way ofreaching out to its "civilisational neighbours" in South East Asia andEast Asia. Dr Singh will use the opportunity provided by the summits totalk about India's economic growth and the steps taken by hisgovernment which have made Indian industry more competitive globallyand turned India into a vibrant marketplace and a productive andprofitable business destination.

He will also stress that economic activities cannot be confined tonational borders and must be channelled to fuel growth in each other'scountries.

The India-ASEAN summit is taking place at a time when trade,investment flows, economic cooperation and people-to- peopleinteractions are assuming an intrinsic momentum of their own.

India feels there is a natural complementarity in the relations,given India's professional and technical strengths and the increasingmarket diversity of the ASEAN.

India became a sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1992.

This was upgraded to full dialogue partnership in 1996.

Since 2002, India has been having annual summits with ASEAN, along with China, Japan and South Korea.

Apart from the economic benefits that can flow from greaterengagement between India and this region, the convergence of two sidesin their security perspectives, in particular the security of thesea-lanes of the Indian Ocean for smooth flow of raw materials,merchandise and energy supplies, has emerged as a crucial factor inrecent years. It is against this background that India has been anactive participant in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meetings over thelast decade.

As part of the ongoing India-ASEAN cooperation, EntrepreneurshipDevelopment centres have been set up in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

A similar centre is now being established in Myanmar.

Centres for English Language Training have also been set up inthese four countries. A proposal to provide satellite connectivitybetween India and the CLMV countries for telemedicine andtele-education applications is currently under activeconsideration.India has also conducted training programmes for ASEANdiplomats.

Other areas of cooperation include trade and investment, scienceand technology, including information technology and space sciences,tourism, transportation and infrastructure.

The first India-ASEAN Summit was held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, inNovember 2002, followed by the second in Bali, Indonesia, in October,2003, the third in Vientiane, Laos, in November, 2004, and the fourthat Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in December, 2005.

Ahead of the summit today, Dr Singh had bilateral meetings withChinese Premier Wen Jiabao, his Malaysian and Vietnamese counterpartsAbdullah Ahmad Badawi and Nguyen Tan Dung and his host President GloriaMacapagal Arroyo of the Philippines.

He will attend a gala dinner hosted tonight by President Arroyo for the heads of state and government attending the EAS.

After the EAS, Dr Singh will leave here tomorrow afternoon forKolkata, where he will spend the night before visiting the violence-hitareas of Asom on Tuesday.

UNI
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