India seeks greater market access from South Korea

India Tuesday asked South Korea for greater market access for its products to correct the imbalance in bilateral trade and sought investment in its infrastructure development.

Greater market access for Indian products was sought by Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, when he met his Korean counterpart Yoon Sang-jick on the sidelines of ministerial meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which was held in Brunei capital Bandar Seri Begawan.

"A balanced trade is conducive to long term, sustainable and harmonious development of our economic cooperation," an official release quoted Sharma as saying.

India's bilateral trade deficit with South Korea was about $4.57 billion during January-June, 2013. In the period under review India imported $6.34 billion, while exported only $1.77 billion to South Korea.

Last year, the deficit stood at $9.36 billion, in which India exported goods and services worth of $4.14 billion, while importing $13.50 billion from South Korea.

According to a ministerial statement, Sharma sought greater South Korean market access for Indian goods and services in information technology (IT), generic medicine and textiles.

Both the countries were able to achieve an increase of 70 percent growth in the first two years of implementation of Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) that India entered with South Korea.

Sharma elaborated on the huge opportunities available for the Korean companies to invest in infrastructure development in India.

"He (Sharma) informed his counterpart about the 12 national investment and manufacturing zones (NIMZ) coming up in India as part of the national manufacturing policy which aims to increase the share of manufacturing in gross domestic product (GDP) from the current 16 percent to 26 percent.