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"India's destiny is increasingly linked with the South East Asian region," said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a meeting with Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi on Monday in Kuala Lumpur.
The prime minister is in Malaysia to attend the 11th ASEAN Summit and the 1st East Asian Summit.
Manmohan Singh said that India offers a great investment climate and a sound economic fundamentals to investors in Malaysia, Vietnam and other Asian nations.
The prime minister's meetings with Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and Vietnam's Prime Minister Phan Van Khai were fruitful and set up a platform to enhance India's ties with the two countries, Rajiv Sikri, secretary (East), ministry of external affairs, said while briefing mediapersons.
India and Malaysia have agreed to further their trade ties and the leaders of both the countries took stock of their Joint Study Group set up for this purpose. The study group will look into ways of ensuring comprehensive economic cooperation between India and Malaysia. The study group will submit the report soon.
Meanwhile, Malaysia which has already invested in India's ambitious nation-wide road project, assured that it would further increase its presence in India's roads and housing sectors by investing more in these core areas.
Malaysia's Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Sammy Vellu said that Malaysian companies are keen to invest in India and have lined up investments to the tune of 10 billion Malaysian Ringitt ($2.65 billion) in India's infrastructure projects, especially roads and housing. The setting up of a special purpose vehicle for this was mooted.
Malaysia and India have also agreed to combat terrorism jointly, so as to root out the menace that has threatened the peaceful existence of people globally.
IT, space tie-ups with Vietnam
Although no treaty was signed to this effect, the prime minister discussed cooperation with Vietnam in the areas of space, science and technology, and information technology
The Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai too has agreed to visit India next year to further enhance ties with New Delhi. Currently, India-Vietnam annual trade is to the tune of $700 million. Vietnam too is a fast growing economy like India, having logged between 7% and 8% GDP growth rate.
India already has an Entrepreneurship Centre in Vietnam to explore better business-to-business relationship.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also sought to enlist Vietnam's help in its quest for a seat on the UN Security Council.