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PM
announces visa on arrival for four Asean countries
Satur day, October
30, 2010 04:43:34 PM, Minu Jain, IANS
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Hanoi: Nationals from
Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Laos would be given visa on
arrival from Jan 1, 2011, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
announced here Saturday.
Addressing the 8th India-Asean summit, the prime minister looked
forward to the conclusion of services and investment agreement
between the two sides.
"We hope that all formalities for implementing the India-Asean
Trade in Goods Agreement by all Asean states are completed at an
early date.
"The conclusion of a Services and Investment Agreement will be an
important step in our goal of comprehensive economic cooperation,"
he told the gathering and stressed that India hoped to "sustain a
growth rate of 9-10 percent per year which will offer many
opportunities for trade and investment".
He also announced that India would set up a Centre for Tracking
and Data Reception and an imaging facility for Asean countries.
Proposing a meeting of heads of space agencies in India to work
out exact details of cooperation, he said: "This centre would
utilise data provided by Indian remote sensing satellites and
harness it for multiple developmental applications."
Under the Initiative for Asean Integration, India would also
upgrade the level of youth exchanges as well as establish vocal
training centres in each of the grouping's countries.
"Connectivity is another important area of our cooperation. As a
further measure to support the Asean Master Plan on Connectivity,
we will offer 100 IT scholarships to each of the 10 Asean
countries over the next five years," he said.
The prime minister, who noted in his speech that the summit was
taking place in the backdrop of the 1,000 year anniversary of
Hanoi and condoled the recent deaths in floods in Vietnam and
tsunami in Indonesia, said the India-Asean partnership had
initiated cooperation in a diverse range of sectors.
"For the past five years the achievement of the India-Asean
partnership has been to initiate cooperation in a diverse range of
sectors covering political and security ties, economic cooperation
and the promotion of socio-cultural links," he said.
The Plan of Action to implement the Asean-India Partnership for
Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity for 2010-15, he said, was
"an ambitious road map and the 82 action points reflect the vast
potential and desire to develop a multi-faceted India-Asean
relationship".
He also invited Asean Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan to visit
India to review the mechanisms and procedures in place so that the
pace of implementing agreed projects could be speeded up.
The prime minister urged further efforts to identify concrete
projects for cooperation under the India-Asean Science &
Technology Fund, India-Asean Green Fund and the $50 million India-Asean
Fund announced last year.
Noting that the tourist exchange between India and the Asean
countries was "well below the potential", he said that the text of
of the Asean-India memorandum of understanding (MoU) for
cooperation in tourism had been finalised.
Asean would also establish a promotional chapter for tourism in
Mumbai, he announced.
"As a concrete measure, I am happy to announce that we will extend
our visa on arrival facility to nationals of Cambodia, Vietnam,
Philippines and Laos with effect from 1st of January 2011."
Referring to cooperation in political and security matters, the
prime minister said: "These are important areas of our cooperation
not only because of the common threats that we face but also
because such cooperation helps to built mutual trust and
understanding."
India would be hosting the commemorative India-Asean summit in
India 2012.
"This will be a landmark event and we must begin preparations
early. The Eminent Persons Group should be set up quickly so that
it can formulate a vision statement towards a long term strategic
partnership between Asean and India that could be the theme of the
summit," he said.
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