Asean-India talks fire Thai enthusiasm

WITH continuing growth of the Indian economy, Thailand is planning to forge a resilient partnership in trade and investment cooperation with the revival next year of the Asean-India Business Council (AIBC), after its deliberations have been suspended for nearly four years.
The move is part of closer cooperation between Asean and India following the signing of their free-trade agreement last August.
Trade Negotiations Department deputy director-general Noppadon Sarawasi said the private sector had played a significant role in driving trade and investment between Asean and India. Reviving the AIBC will lead to better opportunities for increasing trade and investment on both sides.
The seventh Asean-India Summit, held in October last year, agreed on the revival of the AIBC and fixed a date for its next meeting -- one day before the Asean-India Business Summit in New Delhi next year. Thereafter, meetings will be held twice a year.
"The private meeting of the AIBC is an efficiency mechanism to strengthen cooperation between the government and private sectors. Private participation will help to eliminate any barriers to trade and investment, while addressing any particular need from the private sectors," Noppadon said.
To motivate private-sector participation, the department has asked the country's most powerful private organisations -- the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), the Board of Trade of Thailand and the Thai Bankers' Association -- to send two representatives each to next year's meeting.
The FTI's principal representative will be Boonpeng Santiwattanatam, a federation committee member concerned with Thai-India, Asean-India, and Bimstec (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) free-trade agreement affairs.
He said the private sector was already working on the detail of the negotiation issues, which would focus on investment.
At present, Asean and India are negotiating the liberalisation of investment, and talks are expected to be finalised this year.
Asean and India have already implemented liberalisation of trade in goods since the signing of their free-trade agreement last year. They are expected to reach a conclusion on investment this year and then on services later, turning the FTA into a more comprehensive pact, Boonpeng said.
However, due to possible effects on the competitiveness of Thai enterprises arising from investment liberalisation, this issue will be one of the major points raised at the AIBC talks, he said.
Potential areas of investment are agriculture, goods manufacturing, healthcare and construction, while sectors in Thailand concerned about investment liberalisation include steel, automobiles and pharmaceuticals.
Moreover, Thai businessmen want to see progress towards the Thailand-India Free-Trade Agreement, following implementation of the associated early-harvest program.
Boonpeng said bilateral talks between Thailand and India should also be addressed because such talks should benefit Thai traders and investors more than the regional pact.
The AIBC meeting aims to provide a private-sector perspective and feedback on the broadening and deepening economic ties between Asean and India.
It also aims to identify priority areas for enhancing economic cooperation between Asean and India by facilitating, coordinating and promoting private-sector participation.
Thailand has set an ambitious target of boosting two-way trade with India to US$7.5 billion (Bt242 billion) this year, from $6 billion last year. India is Thailand's 10th-largest export market. The value of exports to India last year reached $3.22 billion. In the first two months of this year, exports to India jumped by 114.02 percent year on year to $777.86 million.
Bilateral trade is expected to exceed $10 billion by 2012.

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