Vientiane (Laos),
November 30
Talking of India’s vision of a greater Asian Economic Community which found an echo with Japan and some Asean members, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for breaking down the North-South disparities and barriers and giving a massive push to economic activities for development and betterment of the people in the Asean region.
Collaborative efforts had to be intensified in removing the instability in Asia and focussing on core areas encompassing agriculture, health, education and science and technology for the upliftment of the people within a region and beyond, he asserted.
The traditional agrarian societies in Asia as evidenced in Asean as well had to be given focussed attention by promoting seeds research and scientific and technological inputs, he added.
Acknowledging its strength in the green revolution, Dr Manmohan Singh told the third India-Asean summit here this afternoon that India could contribute significantly in these critical sectors as well as information technology and communication.
On the education front, he suggested concretising a project for the visually impaired to use the internet through Braille.
On the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation, the Prime Minister said the Rules of Origin in the proposed free trade pact should take into account the interests of industry.
India and Asean adopted a far reaching document on “Partnership for peace, progress and shared prosperity” to jointly address the common challenges in establishing comprehensive political and economic security, combating the menace of international terrorism and other transnational crimes and cooperate in multilateral fora, particularly the WTO.
He also announced a $ 2.5 million support for the Asean Fund.
Attaching great significance to the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between India and Asean in Bali last year, the document called for taking full advantage of the geographical contiguity of Southeast Asia and India in implementing the Free Trade pact by 2011 for Asean 5 and India and progressively bringing in its fold other member states by 2018.
Speedy implementation of the Early Harvest Programme for freer movement of goods, services, investment and intensifying economic cooperation in other spheres was also emphasised.
Adopted at the conclusion of the 90-minute India-Asean summit, the document drew attention to improving financial stability as well as developing and promoting an Asian Bond market.
The document’s Plan of Action touches on the entire gamut of political and security cooperation, including food, human and energy, finance, science and technology, IT and communication technology, human resource development, health, pharmaceuticals and agriculture.
While according high priority to regional infrastructure and road, rail, sea and air transportation links, it called for early reforms in the United Nations and Brettonwoods institutions to make them responsive to the priorities of the Asean region, especially the
developing and least developed countries (LDCs).
Later, while flagging off the Asean car rally for the second time, after having done so firstly at its starting point in Guwahati on November 22 along with other Asean Heads of State Dr Manmohan Singh described the same as a journey into the future demonstrating the possibilities that could come about in trade, tourism and people-to-people contact by bringing the countries closer.
Admitting that there were considerable hurdles in overland travel, he had no doubt that in future this would become commonplace as it was centuries ago.
Dr Manmohan Singh said in this era of globalisation, interconnectivity whether within a region or between regions had to be comprehensive.
“Our growing interaction with Asean is critical in fulfilling the promise of the 21st century being an Asian one. By building such bridges of understanding and interaction will we increase and widen the circles of prosperity and growth,” he stressed.
He said the just concluded third India-Asean summit would be seen as a milestone in this journey of common destiny.
The car rally would terminate in Jakarta after covering 8000 km through most of the Asean countries. The development of the Northeast and its integration with the larger regional processes is one of the prime determining factors of India’s engagement with regional cooperation as under Asean or sub-regional cooperation as under
Bimstec.
