Piyush Goyal to attend RCEP, ASEAN economic ministers meeting

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will attend the 7th RCEP Ministerial Meeting, 16th ASEAN India Economic Ministers (AEM) meeting and the 7th East Asia Economic Ministers Summit being held in Bangkok from September 8 to 10.

The meetings will be attended by economic ministers and senior leaders of ten ASEAN member countries and the East Asia Summit (EAS) countries.

An official release said that engagement with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) is at the core of India's 'Act East' policy. ASEAN is the gateway to the Indian Ocean region and there is the convergence of views about the outlook to the region between India and members of the grouping.

India's trade with ASEAN has jumped three-fold from USD 21 billion in 2005-06 to USD 96.7 billion in 2018-19.

ASEAN countries together have emerged as the largest trading partner of India in 2018-19 (followed by the US) with a share of 11.47 per cent in India's overall trade. India was ASEAN's sixth-largest trading partner in 2018.

The release said that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into India from ASEAN between April 2018 to March 2019 was about USD 16.41 billion which is approximately 36.98 per cent of total FDI flow into India.

FDI inflows from India to ASEAN in 2018 amounted to USD 1.7 billion placing India as ASEAN's sixth-largest source of FDI.

The EAS meeting will discuss regional and global economic developments and ASEAN's outlook on the Indo-Pacific region.

Matters related to the promotion of trade and investment among the partner countries will also be discussed in the meetings.

Goyal is also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Japan, Singapore, China, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand and Russia.

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is an economic cooperation agreement that is being negotiated by the 16 countries including the ten countries of ASEAN. India has some issues of interest both in trade in goods and trade in service.