Asean-India Eminent Persons assistants meet to draft report

VIENTIANE,01.31.2012 (KPL) - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Lao PDR organized in Vientiane on 30-31 January a first mid - term meeting of the assistants of the Asean-India eminent persons groups (AIEPG) to discuss the draft of a report on cooperation between Asean and India. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Cheth Naren, Director General of Asean Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Cambodia and was attended by eminent persons from the ten ASEAN Member States and India. In order to mark the 20th anniversary of the cooperation between Asean and India in 2012, the 8th Asean-India summit held in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2010 has agreed to establish the ASEAN-India Eminent Persons Group (EPG) to take stock of the 20 years of ASEAN-India cooperation and chart future direction of ASEAN-India dialogue relations by drafting a new ASEAN-India Vision 2020 Document for presenting at the Commemorative Summit in 2012. The AIEPG has already held two meetings in Cambodia and India and will convene two more to complete its report. The report will be presented at the meeting of the ASEAN-India Eminent Persons Group which will be held in Malaysia on March 2012. In 2010, the total trade between ASEAN and India was 53.4 billion U.S. dollars, a growth of 36.6 percent from 39.1 billion U.S. dollars in a year earlier. This accounted for 2.6 percent of the total ASEAN trade in 2010. As for foreign direct investment (FDI), the inflow from India to ASEAN member states was 2.54 billion U.S. dollars in 2010, an increase of 207.8 percent from 826.18 million U.S. dollars in 2009. This accounted for 4.24 percent of the total FDI into ASEAN. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) group Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.