ASEAN can serve as economic model for South Asia, says India’s main envoy
View(s):Discussions are currently underway on creating a Comprehensive Regional Economic Partnership in East Asia, which will include ASEAN and six other economies – China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand, Y.K. Sinha, India’s new High Commissioner to India said last week.
He was speaking at the annual meeting of the Indo Lanka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ILCCI) held in Colombo, and was referring to recent global developments and economic cooperation and suggesting that in the backdrop of a changing ‘global economic architecture’, there is a need to reinvent and redefine relationships in this region.
He said the last two decades have seen momentous changes sweeping the world.
For the last four years, the global economy has been struggling with an unprecedented crisis which has had a domino effect across the world. No country big or small has remained insulated from these changes and even today the situation in Europe and America remains fragile. However, in this bleak economic environment, countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America have demonstrated remarkable resilience. In the emerging multi-polar world order, the new growth poles lie in the Southern hemisphere, the high commissioner noted.
He said ASEAN can serve as a model for the region as it effectively demonstrates how nation states with as diverse levels of development as Singapore and Laos can come together for mutually rewarding economic partnerships.
ILCCI President Vish Govindasamy said a large number of top Indian companies continue to show interest in investing in Sri Lanka in many major sectors.
“It has also not been one sided and our own companies have found prospects to invest in the Indian market and be benefited by it. We have no doubt – as we have been saying year on year – that, the Free Trade Agreement has brought many benefits to both India and Sri Lanka,” he said
The new ILCCI committee for 2013/2014 is as follows:
President – Vish Govindasamy, Group Managing Director, Watawala Plantations; Vice President- Biju Jacob, Country Head, ICICI Bank; Vice President – Romesh David, President Transportation Group, John Keells Holdings PLC and Immediate Past President – Mano Selvanathan, Group Director, Carson Cumberbatch. Committee members – Samantha Rajapakse, Managing Director, Associated Motorways (Pvt) Ltd; Suren Goonewardene, CEO/MD, Bharti Airtel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd; Tilak De Zoysa, Chairman, Carson Cumberbatch; Vinod Hirdaramani, Director, Hirdaramani (Industries) Ltd; Sanjay Tiwari, President/Executive Director, Piramal Glass Ceylon; S.Manish, Counsellor (Economic & Commercial), High Commission of India and P. D. Fernando, Director General Commerce of Sri Lanka.
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