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Manmohan Singh announces five key initiatives for boosting India-ASEAN ties | Emphasizing India’s engagement with the ASEAN countries as a key element of his country’s vision of an Asian economic community that is based on an open and inclusive architecture, visiting Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan
Singh, on Saturday said New Delhi wishes to partner ASEAN in realizing this vision for mutual benefit, mutual prosperity and mutual respect. Addressing the Seventh
India-ASEAN Summit here, Dr. Singh described the ASEAN region as being synonymous
with dynamic economic growth. “The adoption of the ASEAN Charter in December 2008
is a manifestation of the growing profile of ASEAN in world affairs. We warmly
welcome this important development. India ’¦s engagement with the ASEAN is at
the heart of our ¡¥Look East¡¦ Policy. We are convinced that India¡¦s future and
our economic interests are best served by greater integration with our Asian partners,”
Dr. Singh said in his address. Lauding the conclusion of the India-ASEAN Trade-in-Goods
Agreement in August 2009 as a major first step “in our objective of creating an
India-ASEAN Regional Trade and Investment Area,” Singh said the journey towards
it was not easy, and having succeeded in overcoming several difficulties, it gave
hope for the future. He also welcomed the healthy growth of India-ASEAN trade
despite the recent global economic downturn. He said that the volume of trade
stood at 48 billion US dollars in 2008. “Despite the economic downturn, I am confident
that we can achieve our bilateral trade target of 50 billion US dollars by 2010.
With the conclusion of the Trade-in-Goods Agreement, we should aim for an even
higher target for our trade turnover,” he added. He also said that India attached
high importance to the early conclusion of negotiations on the Trade-in-Services
and Investment Agreement. “I am happy to note that there has been good progress
on all other initiatives that have been taken by us, including those discussed
at the last Summit in Singapore in 2007. These include the creation of an India-ASEAN
Science and Technology Fund, the India-ASEAN Health Care Initiative, cooperation
in traditional medicines, the India-ASEAN Network on Climate Change and the establishment
of a Green Fund. Several programmes to promote people-to-people contacts are also
being implemented. We look forward to working closely with the ASEAN and other
countries of the East Asia Summit process to establish the Nalanda University
as an international institution of excellence in education with a continental
focus,” Singh said. In keeping with the theme of the ASEAN Summit of “Enhancing
Connectivity, Empowering Peoples”, Dr. Singh proposed five initiatives to further
strengthen links between India and ASEAN: - Establishment of an India-ASEAN Round
Table comprising think tanks, policy makers, scholars, media and business representatives
to bridge the knowledge gap. The Round Table would provide policy inputs to the
governments of India and the ASEAN countries on future areas of cooperation. -
Intensification of negotiations on an open skies policy, further simplification
of the visa regime to encourage business and tourist travel, a much larger number
of youth exchange programmes, and commencement of exchanges of Parliamentarians
between India and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly. - Holding an ASEAN Trade
and Industrial Exhibition in India in October 2010 or January 2011. - Enhanced
cooperation in the agriculture sector with a view to meeting the challenges of
food security. The forthcoming meeting of our Agriculture Ministries in 2010 in
India should identify specific areas of cooperation, including in extension services.
- Cooperation in the application of space technologies. We would be ready to share
satellite data for management of natural disasters, launch small satellites and
scientific instruments and payloads for experiments in remote sensing and communication
for space agencies and academic institutions in ASEAN countries. He also said
that India has been privileged to be a partner in the “Initiative for ASEAN Integration”
Programme. “We have been involved in projects for skills upgradation such as Entrepreneurship
Development Centres and Centres for English Language Learning in Cambodia , Myanmar
, Lao Peoples Democratic Republic and Vietnam . We would be happy to increase
the number of such Centres. In addition, he said, India would be happy to participate
in projects under the ASEAN’s Work Plan for 2009-2015 in areas such as education,
energy, agriculture and forestry, and small and medium enterprises. Welcoming
ASEAN’s plans to develop an ASEAN ICT Master Plan for the period 2010-2015, he
said India would be happy to offer its services for the realization of this Plan,
and to assist in the creation of an e-network in ASEAN which could ultimately
be linked up with select Indian institutions in diverse areas. “To support all
these initiatives, we are ready to allocate up to 50 million US dollars during
the period of the ASEAN Work Plan under the ASEAN-India Cooperation Fund and the
ASEAN Development Fund,” he said. In 2012, we will be commemorating the 10th anniversary
of India ’s participation as a summit level partner of ASEAN, and 20 years as
a sectoral dialogue partner. These are significant milestones, and deserve careful
preparation. We could jointly consider organising a commemorative ship expedition
in 2011-12 on the sea routes developed during the 10th to 12th centuries linking
India with South East Asia and East Asia . The sea route could cover modern and
ancient ports in ASEAN countries, and other East Asian countries. India , he said
would be privileged to host the India-ASEAN Summit meeting in 2012 in India .
“To ensure a substantive outcome, I would further propose that we set up a Joint
Task Force to prepare a Vision Statement for India-ASEAN relations upto the year
2020. This should take into account the growing strengths of both the ASEAN countries
and India and how we can jointly harness our complementarities and contribute
to a more peaceful and prosperous Asia ,” he said. “Given the steadily expanding
range of our cooperation it is important that we put in place effective monitoring
and follow-up mechanisms to ensure the effective implementation of the decisions
that we take,” Singh added. He thanked the Prime Minister of Thailand, Abhisit
Vejjajiva for hosting the 7th India-ASEAN Summit and Indonesia for serving as
the Coordinator for India . He also welcomed Cambodia as the next Coordinator,
and assured it of India ’s full support. |
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