India-ASEAN FTA a win-win outcome for both: FICCI

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SME Times News Bureau | 22 Dec, 2012
India-ASEAN FTA in service and investment will lead to a win-win outcome for both the economies, said FICCI President, Naina Lal Kidwai in a press statement Friday.

Welcoming the conclusion of negotiations on FTA in services and investments between India and ASEAN, Kidwai said, "This is very critical for completing the comprehensive economic cooperation agreement and taking our economic engagement to a new height."

"We are confident, FTA in services and investments would lead to "win-win" outcome for both the economies in a similar way as FTA in goods has resulted in a significant expansion in our two-way trade from USD 44 billion in 2009-10 to around USD 80 billion in 2011-12," she added.

When implemented, FTA in services will provide greater market access to India's professionals and service-providers as ASEAN is a net importer of services with its global imports exceeding USD 260 billion last year, Kidwai pointed out.

"ASEAN countries together account for nearly 7 percent of worldwide imports of commercial services and thus offer substantial opportunities for India in a large number of areas such as engineering, construction, architecture, accountancy, health-care, transport, tourism, education, financial, communication, and IT-enabled services", FICCI President observed.

Services sector is a major and growing component of ASEAN countries' economic activities, currently accounting for 40 to 60 percent of their GDP.

Like India, ASEAN's exports of commercial services have been expanding steadily from USD 80 billion in 2003 to USD 253 billion in 2011. Similarly, ASEAN's imports of commercial services rose from USD 104 billion to USD 262 billion in the same period, FICCI said in a statement.