India, Columbia sign bilateral investment promotion pact

India and Columbia today signed a bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement (BIPPA), which would serve as a catalyst in boosting investment flows between the two countries.

India's minister of commerce and industry Anand Sharma and the Columbian minister of commerce, industry and tourism Luis Guillermo Plata signed the agreement in New Delhi today.

The agreement aims at enhancing bilateral investment and technology flows between the two countries, by creating favourable conditions for investors, an official release said.

Under the treaty, both countries would arrive at a mutually acceptable definition of investment as also intellectual property rights (IPR), besides giving national treatment and most favoured nation treatment to bilateral investments, on post-establishment basis. The treaty also provides for protection against expropriation, except for a public purpose, against a fair and equitable compensation, full reparability of investment and returns.

The agreement provides for elaborate dispute resolution mechanism to settle disputes between an investor and the host government or between the two governments. Dispute resolution mechanism includes recourse to negotiations, conciliation, domestic dispute resolution mechanism and international arbitration.

The agreement will remain in force for a period of ten years and thereafter, it would be deemed to have been automatically extended unless either country gives to the other country a written notice of its intention to terminate the agreement. The agreement may be amended at any time after its entry into force by mutual consent, the release added.