'ASEAN and India may be a boon for each other'

'ASEAN and India may be a boon for each other'

NEW DELHI (AFP): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said her Saturday that the seven-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and India could prove to be a boon for each other.

"The expansion of ASEAN embracing all the 10 countries in South East Asia will provide a large market and wider investment opportunities for Indian companies," Mahathir said in an inaugural address at the ASEAN-India lecture series here.

"ASEAN and India can also explore ways to jointly utilize our resources in regional activities such as the ASEAN-Mekong Development Cooperation and the sub-regional growth areas," he said.

"I would like to invite the Indian information technology companies to invest in the multi-media Super-corridor project which the Malaysian government is actively promoting."

At an informal summit in Jakarta last month, ASEAN leaders agreed to allow Burma, Laos and Cambodia to join simultaneously, but their entry date has yet to be specified.

Mahathir, who arrived here Friday for a four-day official visit, said India's admission in July as a dialogue partner of the group, comprising Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, was the start of a promising relationship.

"There are indeed good prospects for improving economic and business opportunities," he said.

"Between 1993 and 1995, ASEAN's total trade with India increased by nearly 60 percent from US$2.9 billion to $4.6 billion, with exports exceeding imports.

"ASEAN's investment in India skyrocketed by 420 percent from 13.66 million dollars in 1993 to 372.73 million dollars in 1995," he said.

The leader said ASEAN, which aims to introduce a free trade area in the region in 2003, and India needed to address "lack of information and misconceptions about trade and investment.

"Some Indians perceive ASEAN markets as being over competitive and many in ASEAN view India as being too bureaucratic and still uncomfortable with an open economy," he said, referring to India's 1991 market reforms.

India and ASEAN have identified gas and petroleum, agriculture, farm technology, power, telecommunications, railways, civil aviation and financial services as areas of mutual cooperation and investment.

Mahathir on Friday backed India's bid to become a member of the 18-economy Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, saying: "We will be supportive of India."

He warned, however, that APEC should not become "unwieldy" and that all new members applying to join would have to fulfill specific criteria.

Mahathir, who is being accompanied by a high-level business delegation, received India's Jawarharlal Nehru award for International Understanding, instituted in memory of India's first prime minister.

The presentation coincided with Mahathir's 71st birthday.