• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

K. Venugopal

Cebu , Jan. 14

India is willing to engage ASEAN in a discussion on an open skies policy, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, told ASEAN leaders at the summit meeting here today. "Greater connectivity is central to the idea of regional economic integration," he said, noting that the initiative taken in 2003 to liberalise air services had led to a significant increase in flight connections between India and ASEAN.

Urging the Trade Ministers to expedite negotiations on the free trade agreement so that it can be finalised, as agreed, by July 2007, Dr Singh said that trade with each other had grown by an "impressive" 30 per cent last year. "This leaves us in little doubt about our ability to achieve, even surpass, the target of $30 billion by 2007". He said India was seeking to deepen the economic integration by entering into free trade or economic partnership agreements both with ASEAN and with individual countries in the region. "These partnerships... could light up the future of this region," he said.

More Stories on : Foreign Trade | Airlines

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
`Banks can reject VRS applications'

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line