'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.