India aims to sign a free trade agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations at a summit in November, a top Indian Commerce Ministry official said recently.

Efforts are on to "tie up" the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by September 30, Indian trade secretary Gopal Pillai told reporters on the sidelines of a business conference in New Delhi.

"An announcement on the India-ASEAN FTA is expected to be made by the prime ministers at the ASEAN Summit to be held in Singapore in November," he said.

Pillai was in Manila last week to discuss details of the India-ASEAN free trade association with the 10-nation bloc.

"We had a good meeting with members of the ASEAN and there was positive movement from both sides."

If concluded within the stipulated time frame India's export to ASEAN could reach $ 22 billion by 2012. India is not a member of ASEAN, but belongs to the ASEAN Regional Forum, a security policy group that includes the US, China and Japan.

In 2005, two-way trade between India and ASEAN was approximately $ 23 billion, with India's exports accounting for about eight billion dollars.

Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam make up the 10-nation ASEAN.

Mr. Rakesh Joshi

Joshi Enterprise

Manager, Joshi Enterprise
Dispur, India

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