More scope for doing better through project funds.

Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj has invited companies from ASEAN countries to take advantage of the opportunities for investments in India’s numerous sectors such as smart cities, roads, highways, ports, railways, power and urban infrastructure.

In order to improve market access, a Project Development Fund has been created to facilitate Indian companies to set up businesses & investments in the Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV countries), she said

“At the same time, we have extended preferential treatment to the Least Developed Countries of ASEAN,” added Swaraj in a keynote address at the Delhi Dialogue on 4 July 2017 in New Delhi.

The implementation of Quick Impact Projects in the CLMV countries and the Mekong Ganga sub regional corporation are successful examples of our development cooperation, she said.

“While we have together executed several other projects under the ASEAN India Fund, ASEAN Green Fund and ASEAN India Science & Technology Development Fund, there is scope for doing much better,” stressed the Minister.

“Today’s Delhi Dialogue provides us an opportunity to consider changing the narrative for better utilisation of these funds,” said Swaraj.

The theme for the 9th Delhi Dialogue, ‘Charting the Course for India – ASEAN Relations for the Next 25 Years’, therefore, is very very apt, sid Swaraj.

“We place ASEAN at the heart of our ‘Act East Policy’ and at the centre of our dream of an Asian century. There is a special emphasis on India-ASEAN cooperation in our domestic agenda on infrastructure, manufacturing, trade, skills, urban renewal, smart cities and Make in India programmes, particularly as they manifest in the North-Eastern region of our country, which we envisage as a land-bridge connecting us with the larger ASEAN region.

Connectivity between India and ASEAN and within ASEAN is a core focus area for us. Development of infrastructure to enhance connectivity, both within India and in the North-Eastern region of India in particular and extension of these connectivity linkages into ASEAN is a priority for us.

The future focus areas of cooperation between ASEAN member States and India can thus be described in terms of three Cs- Commerce, Connectivity and Culture. This triumvirate, of course, rests on the platform of stability and security, said the Minister. fii-news.com