India-Asean pact on services, investments likely early next year: Malaysian Minister

Hyderabad: The India-Asean agreement on services and investments is likely to be concluded by early next year paving the way for further co-operation, according to Mustapa Mohamed, Malaysian Minister for Trade and Industry.

"The talks are at an advanced stage including at Djakarta and we hope the agreement will be concluded early next year. In fact, it was expected to be reached last year," he said.

The Association of South East Asia Nations hope this will open up opportunities and strengthen the earlier agreement signed on trade.

Speaking to newspersons, he hoped that the Malaysia India trade will top $15 billion (US) by 2015, up from $12.5 billion recorded during 2011. About 51 per cent of Malaysian exports comprise manufactured products such as electrical and electronic.

A high-powered Malaysian delegation is on India tour interacting with industries, State and Central Government representatives seeking to further strengthen the trade ties. Malaysia is keen to attract Indian small and medium-sized businesses to locate their bases and expand trade in the region.

He felt that India with a population of about 1.2 billion and ASEAN with 600 million, the opportunities abound.

The Trade Minister said that a Malaysian company has made big inroads into the mono-rail opportunity in India with its first project in Mumbai and two projects in Brazil. It is in talks with several major cities including Kolkata for setting up mono rail networks, he said.

Referring to infrastructure opportunity, he said Malaysia is engaged with development of about 1,000 km of road network in India and is keen to play a role in other infrastructure projects, housing sector and MRO facilities.

Male Issue
Referring to the Male airport issue, he said, "The Malaysian Government would negotiate with the Maldives counterpart on the [Male airport] issue. Being a partner for the airport project with GMR, we have been affected. I believe Governments should respect contracts. However, we hope they (Maldives Government) would compensate us for the loss."