Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will represent India at the Trade Ministers’ meeting of member countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in Bangkok and the East Asia Economic Ministers Summit in Bangkok between September 8-10.

The Minister is also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Japan, Singapore, China, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand and Russia, according to an official release.

“The meetings will be attended by Economic Ministers and senior leaders of the 10 ASEAN member countries and eight East Asia Summit (EAS) countries,” according to an official release.

The Trade Ministers of RCEP countries, which includes the 10-member ASEAN, India, China, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, will try to give a final shape to the proposed free trade pact which includes several areas such as goods, services, investments, intellectual property and government procurement.

“Engagement with ASEAN is at the core of India’s ‘Act East’ policy. ASEAN is the gateway to the Indian Ocean region and as close partners, there is convergence of views in India’s and ASEAN’s outlook in the region,” the release stated.

India’s bilateral trade jumped threefold from $21 billion in 2005-06 to $96.7 billion in 2018-19. ASEAN countries together have emerged as the largest trading partner of India in 2018-19 (followed by the US), with a share of 11.47 per cent in India’s overall trade, while India was ASEAN’s sixth largest trading partner in 2018, the release added.

Investment flows are also substantial both ways. The foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into India from ASEAN in the April-March 2018-19 period was about $16.41 billion which is approximately 36.98 per cent of total FDI flow into India.

FDI inflows from India to ASEAN in 2018 was $1.7 billion, placing India as ASEAN’s sixth largest source of FDI.

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