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Published on September 15, 2007

In Bangkok yesterday he said the Thailand-India FTA was an efficient accord that would not only boost their own trade and economic growth but also encourage that in neighbouring countries.

"We have had very constructive discussions with Thailand recently and are hopeful that it will be possible to sign the FTA on goods before the end of this year," Mukherjee said.

On the theme of "India's Look East Policy: Implications for Thailand and Southeast Asia", he said that Thailand and India were natural partners and that India's "Look East" policy had found a perfect match in Thailand's "Look West" policy.

Since the beginning of Thailand-India FTA negotiations in 2003, the countries have agreed to sign an Early Harvest Scheme, covering 82 products for tariff elimination. In addition, high-level officials agreed this year to extend FTA cooperation to a comprehensive pact covering all goods, services and investments. A decision regarding a comprehensive agreement will be taken by 2010. Trade between the two countries increased 32 per cent in the first seven months of this year to US$3.6 billion (Bt123 billion), Thailand enjoys a trade surplus with India. Exports from India to Thailand grew 25.7 per cent to $1.1 billion, while exports from Thailand to India jumped 65.9 per cent to $1.49 billion in the first seven months of the year.

Mukherjee said that the tight cooperation between the nations encouraged greater Thai investment in India and promoted tourism growth on both sides.

Last year almost 500,000 Indian travellers visited Thailand while over 33,000 Thais travelled to India. This number is expected to increase gradually, thanks to closer transport links.

Besides the bilateral trade pact, Mukherjee expected that the India-Asean FTA would see a breakthrough in the next few months.

Despite individual differences, he said it was time for nations to be pragmatic and find a win-win outcome. Achieving a pluralist pact would, he said, promote outstanding trade and investment growth on either side.

To support the Look East policy, Mukherjee is looking forward to progress in the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec). India will host the next summit early next year.

Mukherjee also said that due to strong economic cooperation among India, China, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries the 21st century would be an "Asian Century" in which Asia would be a drive r of global economic growth.

Asian countries would, he said, also seek cooperation in science and technology, defence, culture, energy resources, logistics and industry.

The total volume of India's trade with the 16 East Asia Summit countries

 

 

 

 amounted to $80.1 billion in 2006.

Turning to Burma's politics, he said that the Indian government was keen for the people of Burma to decide whether it wanted a military or a democratic government. India's ideology is to allow each country to decide its own regime, he noted.

Thai-India Chamber of Commerce president Deepak Mittal said businessmen believed the Thai-India FTA would be signed by the end of this year.

The mutual pact will create more trade and investment growth between them, he said.

He said India would make further progress on the trade pact with Thailand and then move on to Asean. Further cooperation under the FTA will significantly promote investment growth on the part of Thai and Indian investors, he said.

Thailand is the third largest investor in India from the Asean region after Singapore and Malaysia.

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

 The Nation