India, Malaysia to sign bilateral trade pact on Friday

Jaishree Balasubramanian

Kuala Lumpur, Feb 16 (PTI) India and Malaysia are set toramp up bilateral trade ties with the signing of a landmarkpact for accelerating economic cooperation between the twonations on Friday.

The Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA)will be signed by Indian Minister of Commerce and IndustryAnand Sharma and his Malaysian counterpart, Mustapa Mohamed,in the presence of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Sharma will arrive here tomorrow evening after signing atrade agreement with Japan.

Najib and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had both calledfor early conclusion of negotiations between the two countrieson the CECA.

The two Prime Ministers said they were keen to see theCECA come into effect by July 1, 2011.

The CECA will cover trade in goods, services andinvestment, as well as other areas of economic cooperation.

During his visit, Sharma will also pay a courtesy call onPrime Minister Najib and have a bilateral meeting withInternational Trade Minister Mustapa Mohamed.

He will also meet the President and office bearers of theMalaysia-India Business Council (MIBC), led by localindustrialist Krishnan Tan.

The minister will be accompanied by a high-level businessdelegation led by B Muthuraman, the President (designate) ofthe Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), who is alsoVice-Chairman of Tata Steel.

The other delegation members include CII Director-GeneralChandrajit Banerjee, Aircel Cellular Ltd Chairperson SuneetaReddy, Bharat Earth Movers Ltd Executive Director ManishSinghal, Coal India Limited (ASSAM) General Manager DebashisSarkar, Delhi International Airport (P) CEO - Corporate(Airports Sector) P S Nair, Hi-Tech Gears Limited Chairman andManaging Director Deep Kapuria and MAS GMR CEO RanganathanVenkata Sheshan.