New Delhi: India will have to scale down its tariffs
to the levels prevalent in ASEAN countries to facilitate
closer co-operation and boost trade ties with the economies
of that region as well as of East Asia, the prime minister
Manmohan Singh has stated.
Singh
said, "For the last 10 years, successive finance
ministers have said our tariff levels should move down
and approach ASEAN levels. We have moved a great deal
in that direction, but a lot needs to be done still."
The
prime minister was speaking at a function after releasing
a commemorative stamp marking the 121st birth anniversary
of the late Seth Walchand Hirachand, business and maritime
pioneer who founded the Hindustan Construction Company
Ltd and Hindustan Aircraft Ltd, now the state-owned Hindustan
Aeronautics Ltd.
Paying
tributes to the late visionary, Singh said, "It is,
indeed, one of the saddest chapters of our industrial
policy that we failed to build on the foundation established
by Walchand Hirachand in this area.
"India
has had a rich, maritime history and even an impressive
history of shipbuilding. Yet, few view India today as
a major, maritime economy. There has been a neglect of
shipbuilding, a neglect of ports, above all, a neglect
of foreign trade."
Expressing
concern over the neglect on all these fronts, the prime
minister was confident that now, India was in a position
to bring down its tariff to the levels prevailing in the
ASEAN countries to boost investments.
"We
can accelerate this process now and take steps to enable
a closer interaction between our economy and the economies
of the ASEAN region," he said.
And
for India to emerge as a major maritime power, Singh said
the country''s infrastructure, mainly its ports and docks,
have to be modernised.
"We
must modernise our maritime infrastructure. We must also
modernise our mindset," he stressed.
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