SBY hopes for bright ASEAN-India future

Bagus BT Saragih, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | World | Fri, December 21 2012, 12:29 PM

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President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called on India and ASEAN countries to lower trade barriers and provide more incentives to businesspeople in an effort to achieve the US$100 billion 2015 trade target.

In his speech before participants at the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit in New Delhi on Thursday, Yudhoyono asked for a more ambitious trade target for the next 20 years.

“India will remain one of ASEAN’s most important trading partners. The growing trade volume between ASEAN and India has surpassed the 2012 target. I am convinced that the 2015 target is achievable,” the President said, according to a copy of his speech sent to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

“We have an opportunity to establish a new set of objectives that will further elevate our partnership and would synergize India’s ‘Look East Policy’ and ASEAN’s community building efforts. To that end, we need to set priority areas of strategic cooperation,” Yudhoyono told participants at the event to mark the 20th anniversary of ASEAN-India relations.

The meeting was led by Indian Prime Minister Mahmohan Singh and also attended by ASEAN leaders including Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Brunei Darussalam Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, and ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan.

With a combined population of 1.8 billion, preditcted to reach 2 billion in 2025, ASEAN and India must address the strategic issues of food and energy security, Yudhoyono added.

“I recommend that we task our relevant ministers and officials to initiate concrete efforts such as more joint research in the agriculture sector, and cooperation among centers of energy research in ASEAN and India,” he said.

The President called for maritime cooperation, given the Indian and the Pacific Ocean are vital for world trade and commerce.

“As much as 90 percent of intercontinental trade and two-thirds of all petroleum supplies travel through these shipping lanes. Seventy percent of the world’s petroleum products pass through the
Indian Ocean,” Yudhoyono said.