Anand Sharma invites Malaysian investments in India's infrastructure sector

Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma, who is leading a 15-member high-level CEO delegation to Malaysia, has sought greater Malaysian investments in building physical infrastructure in India. He also called for the profitable deployment of Malaysian sovereign investment funds in India.

Sharma called on Malaysian prime minister Mohd Najib Tun Razak and held wide-ranging discussions on issues of shared bilateral interest. The Malaysian prime minister expressed a strong wish for an early conclusion of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with India. Sharma expressed optimism in concluding negotiations by end of the year.

Malaysia, Najib said, is keen on developing its knowledge-based industry in partnership with India and would like to see greater movement of Indian specialists and professionals towards this end. He expressed satisfaction on the dynamism of India-Malaysia bilateral trade, expressing hope that the target of $15 billion would be met much earlier than 2015. He further underlined the growing partnership between Indian and Malaysian corporates, specially commending the Terminal 3 of IGI Airport as a shining example of collaboration.

The Malaysian prime minister evinced keen interest in collaboration in infrastructure, energy and gave a special emphasis on renewable energy collaboration for rural electrification in Malaysia.

Earlier in the day, Sharma had bilateral talks with his counterpart minister Dato' Sri Mustapa Muhamed. During the meeting, both ministers reviewed the progress in ongoing CECA negotiations and agreed to conclude a balanced and ambitious agreement by the end of the year.

They expressed confidence in achieving the target set for bilateral trade. Investments from both sides are in the range of $5 billion and the ministers identified priority sectors for future engagement, including infrastructure, particularly highways, railways and airports, IT and ITES, biotechnology, tourism and health services.