(a) whether the Government has any mechanism to enhance economic and strategic relations with Southeast Asian countries;
(b) If so, details thereof;
(c) whether the Government has a Project Development Fund to set up manufacturing hubs in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam (CMLV) through seperate Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs);
(d) If so, the details thereof; and
(e) whether the SPVs are functioning properly with economic return; and If so, the details thereof?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
[GEN. (DR) V. K. SINGH (RETD)]
(a) Yes the Government has many multilateral and bilateral mechanism to enhance economic and strategic relations with Southeast Asian countries.
(b) India and ASEAN have 30 dialogue mechanisms which comprises 7 Ministerial level meetings and 23 Sectoral dialogues apart from Annual Summits. In addition, to enhance our strategic and economic relations with individual Southeast Asian countries there exist various bilateral mechanisms including high-level exchanges, Ministerial dialogue and senior officials meetings.
(c) to (e) A Project Development Fund (PDF) has been set up with a corpus of Rs. 500 crores with the objective to facilitate Indian investment and broaden the manufacturing base of Indian Companies in CLMV countries. An Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) under the Chairpersonship of Commerce Secretary monitors the operation of the PDF. The Inter-Ministerial Committee on 25.04.2017 has approved the following projects for preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) :-
Setting up of Multi-Speciality Hospital and/or Medical College in Cambodia
Setting up of Multi-Speciality Hospital and/or Medical College in Myanmar
Setting up of an Educational Institute in Myanmar
Setting up a Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Unit in Vietnam
The Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for the above mentioned projects are under preparation.
*****