New Delhi, June 13
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the high-powered Trade and Economic Relations committee (TERC) to devise a blueprint to deal with the challenges and opportunities provided by the processes of globalisation.
Chairing the first meeting of the TERC here today, Dr Singh stressed that the government must devise medium to long term strategy for India’s economic interaction. This should ensure special focus on relations with India’s neighbours and major economic partners.
Observing that economic relations have come to increasingly influence strategic engagement, the Prime Minister said India’s economic interaction with the world was still relatively limited and this must increase. He also called for greater inter-ministerial dialogue and coordination in this regard.
The meeting discussed Indo-US economic relations in preparation for Dr Singh’s visit to Washington in July. Underlining the need to increase the level of economic interaction with the US, he said that China’s economic engagement with the US was 10 times that of India.
“There is vast potential for increased trade and investment relations with US. We must consider how we can realise that potential.”
The TERC was set up to function as a new institutional mechanism for evolving policies on economic relations with other countries with the Prime Minister as its Chairman and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister T.K.A. Nair as its Convenor. Members of the TERC include the ministers of External Affairs, Finance, Commerce and Industries, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Chairman of the PM’s Economic Advisory Council, Chairman of the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council and the National Security Advisor.
The TERC will coordinate the preparatory work on the strategy on economic relations with India’s major economic partners, neighbours and regional
economic groupings. The committee may commission specialised studies, suggest mechanisms for promoting economic
operation, evolve the scope and extent of economic engagement with identified countries and examine proposals for economic coordination between India and other countries.
