Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, addressed over 600 participants at the “India lunch” hosted by CII in Singapore as part of the ongoing 2007 ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Singapore.
He said ASEAN is very important for India and Southeast Asia was the first natural step for India to really look overseas. Today India-ASEAN trade stands at nearly USD 30 bn, though not very large but contributing to a growing steady India-ASEAN relation which has fast becoming a mature long standing and trusted partnership.
While economically India is growing steadily at a very healthy pace of nearly 9% GDP, he citied the following key challenges for India to achieve inclusive growth, which could translate into business opportunities for ASEAN and other businesses :- • Agriculture and Food processing • Infrastructure • Education and skills development • Healthcare
While India clearly has a lot to learn from the ASEAN countries, Dr Ahluwalia mentioned that India also brings to the partnership some unique comparative advantages and that help broaden the range of complementarities.
For instance, all and Southeast Asian countries specialize in manufacturing and hardware capabilities, India's comparative advantage is more in services and software, and in knowledge-based manufacturing.
While efforts are being made for the India-ASEAN Partnership reach its zenith some setbacks are still hindering both parities from fully benefiting from such cooperation.
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