India
and Asean formed on Saturday a framework of bilateral cooperation in the
agriculture sector that would last for at least five years.
Asean ministers or their deputies met with
Indian Minister of Agriculture and Food Processing Sharad Pawar to arrange
matters related to agricultural development and food trade in the region.
"The meeting is expected to initiate
solid and beneficial bilateral relations. For Asean, India is an important
partner not only economically, but also for human resources and research
development," said Indonesian Agriculture Minister Suswono.
The meeting was held after the 33rd Asean
Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) meeting.
The meeting's organizing committee head,
Achmad Suryana, said that the cooperation would cover joint agreements to
upgrade human resources related to the agricultural sector to transfer
knowledge, research and development and to set quality standards for food trade
in the future.
The 11 countries also agreed to meet annually.
"This year, Asean will be the host
country, but next year, India will take the lead," Suryana said.
He said that all the meeting participants
delivered ideas and expectations for materializing the agreement.
"We have yet to create a detailed and
final agreement because it is just the beginning," he added.
However, Suryana said that several key factors
such as the standardization of food commodities were among the topics at the
meeting.
"There are big possibilities that
agricultural commodity trade between Asean and India will happen in the
future," he said. "That's why it was discussed so early."
Rice, crude palm oil, spices and vegetables
were among the potential agricultural commodities to be traded between Asean
and India.
"The standardization should be set up at
the regional level rather than a country-to-country level," he said,
adding that standardization was meant to ensure product quality.
Suryana added that the cooperation would adopt
the model of Asean Plus Three with China, Japan and South Korea.
"There will be training of agricultural
experts to improve the quality of the agricultural sector," he said.
Suryana also said that the ministerial meeting
could be used to intensify Indonesia-India relations in the sector.
"Trade ministers from the two countries
have talked about increasing trade. We hope the meeting can provide benefits to
the future trade of Indonesia and India," he said.
On Tuesday, India and Indonesia held the first
Biennial Trade Ministers' Forum in Jakarta to double the surging bilateral
trade and forge a strong economic partnership between the two countries.
India expected to invest in the automotive,
textile, chemical, banking, telecommunications, steel and aluminum industries
along with several infrastructure projects such as building railway lines,
seaports and airports.
For Indonesia, India is a major trading
partner for its coal, palm oil, rubber, paper and chemicals.
According to the Central Statistics Agency,
bilateral trade was valued at US$13.20 billion last year. In the first half of
this year, the two countries recorded $8.9 billion in trade, up from $5.79
billion last year.
On Thursday, Indonesian Trade Minister Mari
Elka Pangestu and Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma agreed to
make a target of US$25 billion trade by 2015.
News Desk
The Jakarta Post
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