Second review of India-Singapore CECA to conclude soon: Lee

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong on Friday said the second
review of the Comprehensive
Economic Cooperation Agreement
(CECA) between India and Singapore
is likely to be concluded soon and
would further liberalise bilateral
trade and give a fillip for deeper
economic engagement.
Mr. Lee, who was here for the
ASEAN-India Commemorative
Summit, told The Hindu that the
second review had taken a long time
and expressed hope that it would be
concluded very soon. “We are willing
to go forward and give a new shape
to the partnership if India is willing
to further liberalise the trade pact.
We are looking for opening up of the
banking sector, which it seems has
been done. Also, we are looking at
reforms in the labour sector and also
very bullish about cooperation in the
aviation sector. India needs to look at
the sub-continent and liberalise its
aviation policies further,” he said.
On the issue of connectivity with
India and ASEAN, Mr. Lee said
ASEAN was working on it. “We are
talking about connectivity in a very
broad sense. We are talking about
physical connectivity like rail and air
links. We are also talking about
cooperation in telecommunication
and energy, a gas network, an
electricity grid and links out of
ASEAN nations and regional partners,
including India,” he said.
Explaining further, he said, for
example, building a rail or road in
China or out of Singapore were some
of the projects where we hope Indian
companies could take part and have
an active role.
At the same time, he said it was
hoped that India-ASEAN would
further enhance other links and one
big potential area was the air
services agreement. “The business
has been growing and the interest of
the people in travelling in the region
has been expanding rapidly. The
flights and frequencies have
increased over the past years but it
still has not caught up and there is no
reason to believe why we should not
let it go. There might be some
airlines talking about business issues
but then as a whole the nation gains
to a large extent,” he said.
Mr. Lee said the ASEAN-India free
trade agreement (FTA) was now a
comprehensive agreement in line
with the other ASEAN +1 FTAs. He
welcomed India’s full participation in
the Regional Comprehensive
Economic Partnership (RCEP), a
mega FTA which ASEAN was working
with dialogue partners. The RCEP
talks were launched at the recent
ASEAN Summit in Cambodia.
He noted that the ASEAN-India
Eminent Persons Group had
proposed many good ideas in skills
development, vocational education
and counter-terrorism and that
ASEAN should pursue them
vigorously. Economic relations have
also blossomed, with ASEAN-India
total trade rising more than 25 times
between 1993 and 2011.
He complimented Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh for being
instrumental in strengthening India-
ASEAN relations. From ASEAN’s point
of view, it has become more
important to strengthen ties with
India because of its dramatic
progress.