India-Korea trade to double to $24-bn in five years: Anand Sharma

New Delhi:  India-Korea bilateral trade could double to around $24 billion over the next five years from the $12 billion levels in 2009-10, according to the Indian minister for commerce and industry, Anand Sharma. He pointed out bilateral trade was only $1.6 billion in 2001-02.

Sharma was speaking Tuesday after a meeting here with Park Young June, the South Korean vice-minister of knowledge economy. He said bilateral trade hads gathered momentum over the last few years.

The trade balance has consistently been in S Korea's favour with Indian exports in 2009-10 worth a mere $3.4 billion, even as imports from Korea touched $8.6 billion.

Sharma said both countries held the first ministerial last month to review implementation of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). He pointed out that with the India-Korea CEPA coming into force bilateral trade had increased by over 40 per cent, as compared to the previous year.

He added that the CEPA was an important milestone in the bilateral trade and economic relations.

''The CEPA will create business opportunities for Korean companies and would simultaneously provide opportunities to Indian professionals from the software, engineering, finance and telecommunication sectors to participate and contribute to Korea's services sector. We look forward to opening of the IT-enabled services market in Korea for our reputed IT companies,'' Sharma said.