Indian Ocean countries need to tap trade potential: Sushma

Says the existing trade potential can be further tapped through sectoral cooperation initiatives

Union minister for external affairs Sushma Swaraj today called for tapping the trade potential of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) member countries through sectoral cooperation initiatives.

IORA is an international organisation consisting of coastal states bordering the Indian Ocean.

"The existing trade potential can be further tapped through sectoral cooperation initiatives. The emerging sectors that present immense potential for trade expansion and regional integration include food processing, fisheries, tourism, environmentally sensitive goods, information technology, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), regional value chain, and so on," the Union minister said.

She was speaking at the inauguration of a three-day international conference on India and Indian Ocean: 'Renewing the Maritime Trade and Civilization Linkages', organised by Institute of Social & Cultural Studies and Research & Information System for Developing Countries.

The time has come that the countries in the region consider evolving a common regional standard to promote intra regional trade, she said. Some mechanisms need to be evolved to address the challenges and hindrances in the way of trade growth to ensure that intra-regional trade becomes significant to make the overall economic performance of IORA vibrant, the minister suggested. She pointed out that on the economic front, IORA has exhibited significant dynamism in the past few years as the region has experienced steady growth in global and intra-regional trade since 2003. The global trade is up 3.5 times from $ 1,224 billion in 2003 to $ 4,232 billion in 2012 whereas intra-regional trade has increased four-fold from $302 billion to $1,230 billion in the same period. "The intra-regional trade ratio that measures the degree of trade integration in the region has also registered significant increase over the years. This growth in intra-regional trade without any formal trade arrangement among the member states reflects the potential existing in the region for deepening regional economic integration," she said.

The intra regional trade investment is negligible despite tremendous potential.

Deepening of regional economic integration may help in exploiting this hidden potential of intra-regional cooperation for mutual benefit, Swaraj said.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief minister Naveen Patnaik said that state's mining and steel sector can contribute to the development of Indian Ocean countries.

"In the last decade , Odisha has consistently displaying a better growth rate than national average. We are keenly developing our infrastructure at rapid pace to boost up our socio economic development. Our robust mining and steel sector can contribute significantly in supporting development in Indian Ocean countries", said Patnaik.