인도-남아시아

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    사진1. Indian Prime Minister Modi visits Cheonggyecheon 출처=/AJU Business Daily

  Korea, India share economic opportunities

 South Korea and India signed a comprehensive economic partnership agreement in 2010, setting up a major framework for further boosting

 bilateral trade and investment ties.

 But it can still hardly be said that the third- and fourth-largest economies in Asia have made the most of this potential for mutual cooperation.

 South Korea and India have yet to put a full-fledged effort toward maximizing their partnershipin a variety of fields.

 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit here that starts Monday is expected to provide significant momentum to facilitate

 endeavors between the two countries. It marks his first trip to Korea since taking office a year ago.

 ​His predecessor, Manmohan Singh, traveled here in 2012, which was followed by President Park Geun-hye’s visit to India in 2014.

 Park and Modi will hold a summit shortly after his arrival in Seoul to discuss upgrading the CEPA  and other measures

 to strengthen bilateral cooperation between both countries on a broad range of areas.  It is anticipated that their discussion

 will be facilitated by what they talked about at their first encounter on the sidelines of the East Asia  Summit in Myanmar last November.

 During his stay here, Modi is expected to look to boost Korean investment in Indian infrastructure and manufacturing to back his

 ​“Make in India” drive.

 He will meet separately with several Korean corporate chief executives Tuesday after attending a forum of business leaders from the two

 countries. In a show of his enthusiasm for working with Korean companies, Modi will visit the Hyundai shipbuilding yard in Ulsan.

 For their part, Korean enterprises are poised to participate more in projects to nurture manufacturing and improve infrastructure in India.

 One of them will be the massive reclamation work in Modi’s home state of Gujarat. He signed a memorandum of understanding

 on the project with Korean officials when he visited Korea in 2006 as chief minister of the state. But subsequent discussion has stalled

 since 2009 due to differences over how to pay for the project, whose cost is estimated to reach $10 billion.

 The two sides can also enhance their partnership in information technology, aerospace and other high-tech fields, in which India has

 a global competitive edge.

 Modi’s drive to boost the Indian economy is increasing attention to the potential of the South Asian giant, which has a growing middle class

 and the world’s second-largest population, with an average age of just 25. According to estimates by the Organization for Economic

 Cooperation and Development, India will account for 18 percent of the world’s gross domestic product by 2060 and become the world’s

 second-biggest economy after China, if it maintains an annual growth rate of 4.9 percent over the decades to come. During his visit to China

 last week, Modi agreed with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang to strengthen cooperation in combining the “strength of a dragon

 and an elephant,” as China’s state news agency put it.

 South Korea and India may also become geostrategic partners, with India supporting South Korea’s stance on inter-Korean matters and Seoul

 throwing its weight behind New Delhi’s balancing role in the Asia-Pacific region.India is the only country with which Korea maintains a

 security dialogue besides its four neighboring powers  ― the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.

 Modi’s visit here should serve as an occasion for the two countries to recognize again that they share a diplomatic and economic blue

 ocean, which sees no waves of conflict and a bright horizon for complementary partnership.

2015년 5월17일 19:57  The Korea Herald  Editorial에 기고된 본문'Modi in Seoul' 원문 스크랩

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​해당 기사의 저작권 및 모든 권한은 전적으로 The Korea Herald 에 있음을 밝힙니다. ​