It is really going to be an Act East policy: Wadhwa
Enhancing the existing trade and economic ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is top on the agenda of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is arriving here on Saturday to participate in the thirteenth Asean-India and the tenth East Asia summits.
Besides the two summits, the Prime Minister is slated to address the Business and Investment Summit, where he wants to emphasise the need for closer economic cooperation and investment opportunities.
Mr. Anil Wadhwa, Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, told The Hindu that the business summit would be attended 1,200 delegates, which would be also addressed by U.S. President Barack Obama and the leaders of 3 to 4 other countries.
Mr. Wadhwa said that the Saturday’s summit “is action-oriented and it is no longer a talk shop.” He said that now there were specific projects on the platform and “it is really going to be an Act East policy.”
In a recent series of Facebook posts, the Prime Minister said that his scheduled visits to Malaysia and Singapore were “aimed at making our economic ties with these nations stronger and to also strengthen the security cooperation between us”.
The Asean today is India’s fourth largest trading partner. India, in turn, is the sixth largest partner for Asean. Trade between India and the Asean stood at $ 76.52 billion in 2014-15. India’s exports to the Asean were $ 31.81 billion and imports were $ 44.71 billion.
The Asean-India strategic partnership was stated to have acquired further momentum after the enunciation of the “Act East Policy” by Mr. Modi at the 12th Asean-India Summit in November 2014. “Our trade and investment flows are substantially growing. Yet, we want to further scale up our trade and economic ties,” Mr. Modi stated. At the Asean-India Summit, leaders are expected to take note of the new Plan of Action (2016-2020) to further cooperation along the politico-security, economic and socio-cultural pillars.
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