India, Malaysia to sign bilateral trade pact on Friday

Jaishree Balasubramanian
Kuala Lumpur, Feb 16 (PTI) India and Malaysia are set to
ramp up bilateral trade ties with the signing of a landmark
pact for accelerating economic cooperation between the two
nations on Friday.
The Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA)
will be signed by Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry
Anand Sharma and his Malaysian counterpart, Mustapa Mohamed,
in the presence of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Sharma will arrive here on Thursday evening after signing
a trade agreement with Japan.
Najib and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had both
called for early conclusion of negotiations between the two
countries on the CECA.
The two Prime Ministers said they were keen to see the
CECA come into effect by July 1, 2011.
The CECA will cover trade in goods, services and
investment, as well as other areas of economic cooperation.
During his visit, Sharma will also pay a courtesy call on
Prime Minister Najib and have a bilateral meeting with
International Trade Minister Mustapa Mohamed.
He will also meet the President and office bearers of the
Malaysia-India Business Council (MIBC), led by local
industrialist Krishnan Tan.
The minister will be accompanied by a high-level business
delegation led by B Muthuraman, the President (designate) of
the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), who is also
Vice-Chairman of Tata Steel.
The other delegation members include CII Director-General
Chandrajit Banerjee, Aircel Cellular Ltd Chairperson Suneeta
Reddy, Bharat Earth Movers Ltd Executive Director Manish
Singhal, Coal India Limited (ASSAM) General Manager Debashis
Sarkar, Delhi International Airport (P) CEO - Corporate
(Airports Sector) P S Nair, Hi-Tech Gears Limited Chairman and
Managing Director Deep Kapuria and MAS GMR CEO Ranganathan
Venkata Sheshan. PTI