NEW DELHI, January 21, 2010. Mr. S M Krishna, Union Minister for External Affairs, today underlined the need for a regional approach to bring about energy security In India and the ASEAN nations which can accommodate competing demands and constraints while shifting the focus from competition to cooperation based on mutual interests.

“We look forward to continued engagement with ASEAN countries and our partners in the East Asia Summit on this issue,” Mr. Krishna said while inaugurating the ‘Delhi Dialogue II-2010 – Regional Security and Cooperation Dialogue’, organized by FICCI in association with the Ministry of External and co-partnered by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Jakarta and supported by SAEA Research Group, Singapore.
Mr. Krishna said that India- ASEAN FTA in goods which came into force on January 1 this year has opened new possibilities for the expansion of India’s trade with the region and expressed the hope that agreements on trade-in-services and Investment would also be concluded soon.

The External Affairs Minister noted that people-to-people contacts and cultural and academic exchanges between India and the ASEAN region have continued to grow. The revival of the Nalanda University as an international institution of excellence, he added, has emerged as an important initiative that underlines the ancient linkages of the two regions.

“We strongly believe in sharing our developmental experiences with our fellow developing countries. We have been happy to participate in development cooperation programmes with ASEAN countries, and in the ‘Initiative for ASEAN Integration’ Programme. We have given particular emphasis to human resource development through training, scholarships, establishment of entrepreneurship development centres and language training centres,” Mr. Krishna declared.

He said that the ASEAN-India S&T Fund, which has been operationalised, would promote joint collaborative research projects in Science and technology. The proposed India-ASEAN Green Fund, with a corpus of US$ 5 million, would promote adaptation and mitigation technologies in the area of climate change.

The Minister said that at the 7th India–ASEAN Summit in October last year, Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh had announced several initiatives to further strengthen the links between India and ASEAN, including establishment of an India-ASEAN Round Table comprising think tanks, policy makers, scholars, media and business representatives that 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; more youth exchange programmes; enhanced cooperation in the agriculture sector to meet the challenges of food security; cooperation in the application of space technologies; holding an ASEAN trade and industrial exhibition in India; among others. “We are ready to allocate up to US $ 50 million to support these initiatives. We would continue to explore ways to further enhance our cooperation and benefit from our complementarities,” he said.

Mr. Krishna said that in the wake of the recent global financial and economic crisis, it was imperative to develop greater cooperation among developing countries, so that these countries have an effective voice in the international financial architecture and a new global economic order.

In his welcome address, Mr. Harsh Pati Singhania, President, FICCI, pointed out that while India and the ASEAN nations have to work closely with the western economies on addressing the global challenges, there are many things that could be done at the regional level to ensure that the long term growth path is sustainable. The global crisis has clearly shown the limitations Asia faces on account of vulnerabilities to external shocks.

He said that Asian economies are heavily dependent on the western markets for their exports. The bulk of foreign funds that flow into these economies also come from the western capital markets. This dependence on the west, needs to be reduced, he said.

Mr, Singhania said that India-ASEAN bilateral trade has crossed the US$ 45 billion mark and we will top the US$ 50 billion mark in 2010. “While our next immediate target for bilateral trade is US$ 70 billion, FICCI would like to propose that the two sides aim to achieve US$ 100 billion in trade by 2015″, he said, adding that with the first essential step towards this already taken – India – ASEAN FTA is now operational – this target is certainly achievable.

A FICCI analysis shows that ASEAN and India have much to offer to each other. While ASEAN countries can benefit from India’s strengths in IT, BPO, pharmaceuticals, space science and oceanography, India can learn valuable lessons from ASEAN countries in infrastructure development and maintenance, tourism management and urban area development.

“We need to cover a lot of ground and cooperate even more in the fields of maritime security and energy security. We also need to strengthen our connectivity and improve our logistical links. This is particularly relevant form the point of view of development of India’s North East which is in a way our superhighway to the ASEAN countries. More channels of communication and travel between India’s North East and ASEAN countries would prove to be a strong stimulus to regional growth,” the FICCI President declared. Countries, he said, can prosper and grow only in a secure environment, adding that terrorism is a regional and global problem and we will have to deal with this in a collective manner on a mission mode.

Mr. K Kesavapany, Director, ISEAS, noted that the target of achieving a US$ 100 billion trade turnover between India and the ASEAN countries by 2015 was a “signpost that we must all aspire for” and concurred with Mr. Singhania that the target was achievable if the borders were kept open and trade was free of barriers.

Source: http://www.ficci.com/PressRelease/548/REGIONALCOOPERATION.pdf

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