Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Jun 02, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Jun 02, 2004 |
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Industry & Economy
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Foreign Trade India for strong relations with ASEAN, SAARC Our Bureau
New Delhi , June 1 THE Special Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Mr Rajiv Sikri, has said that India is committed to forge stronger relations with the entire Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) regions. Addressing a meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mr Sikri said this was because the regions were important to the country not only for political but also for economic reasons and added that economic relations with neighbours were strategically important. "Good economic integration will serve broader political objectives," he said. Referring to the proposed ASEAN car rally, that the Ministry of External Affairs and the CII were jointly planning, he said that it would go a long way in creating awareness between India and ASEAN. He also said that better trade ties with ASEAN and SAARC would positively impact the North-East region, in its economic prosperity. While at present, India-ASEAN trade is worth $13 billion and the target is to achieve a goal of $30 billion by 2007, the trade with SAARC is merely $7 billion. Mr Sikri said that there was huge potential for both the regions to increase trade manifold. Energy is one area where there could be cooperation among the countries in the region. The Head of Missions, in their presentations, stated the specific business opportunities that would open up for Indian industry with the Multi Fibre Agreement in textiles opening up from January 2005.
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