India to sign FTA with ASEAN in August
Special Correspondent
Member countries will be able to reduce tariffs for 4,700 categories
Thailand Industry Minister on India visit
Auto components, telecom sectors to benefit
NEW DELHI: Visiting Industry Minister of Thailand Chanchai Chairungruang on Thursday announced that the much-awaited ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) would be inked in August during the ASEAN Economic Ministers conference to be held in Thailand.
Addressing a group of select mediapersons here, Mr. Chairungruang said that with the signing of the FTA, it would enable member countries to reduce tariffs for more than 4,700 categories from January 1, 2010, onwards. “The Thailand Government would ensure effective implementation of the existing agreements and policies and also seek new measures to facilitate more investments from India,” he added.
He said the beneficiaries of this would be the 1.7 billion people who live in this economic zone which generates a total GDP of more than $6 trillion. Automotive components, telecommunications, electrical appliances and aluminium products would benefit from this FTA. All manufacturers in India and ASEAN would benefit by using raw materials with this economic zone.
Mr. Chairungruang is on a visit to India along with a high level delegation of Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI) to seek investments by Indian companies in Thailand.
The delegation would be visiting Mumbai, Pune, Taloja and New Delhi.
Mr. Chairungruang said conglomerates like the Aditya Birla group and the Tatas already had a significant investment in Thailand and the attempt was to get more potential Indian companies to set up operations and benefit from the major incentives and attractive schemes that had been launched for this purpose. The target industries include automobile and auto components, agriculture and farm machinery, chemicals, plastics, electronics, telecom, textiles and software.
“With trade between India and Thailand reaching $6 billion, Thailand was confident that there is a lot of scope for further enhancing trade relations in the backdrop of the ‘Early Harvest Scheme’ between the two countries and also the impending ASEAN-India FTA,” he said.
The Industry Minister, who is also the Vice Chairman of BOI, Thailand, said Thailand could partner India to extend its reach to the entire Southeast Asia and Asia Pacific region as important potential markets.
