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India to sign FTAs on services, investment with ASEAN soon

India has received documents of the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) on services and investment with ASEAN, and will sign the pacts soon, said Indian Commerce and Industry Secretary Rajeev Kher.
India has received documents of the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) onservices and investment with ASEAN, and will sign the pacts soon, saidIndian Commerce and Industry Secretary Rajeev Kher.

The PressTrust of India (PTI) news agency quoted Rajeev Kher as saying that thesigning of the pacts was scheduled during the India-ASEAN EconomicMinisters meeting in Myanmar last week. However, the meeting waspostponed as Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharamanwas unable to attend due to domestic issues.

The two sides concluded the negotiations for the agreements in 2012.

Once in effect, the FTAs will help boost Indian investors’ activitiesin the ASEAN region, as well as facilitate more investments in theservices sector.

Two-way trade between India and ASEAN stoodat about 76 billion USD in 2012-13. Both sides aim to increase it to 100billion USD by 2015.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia,Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.-VNA
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