The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has said that India’s pharmaceutical industry can become a key supplier of generic drugs, medical devices and vaccines to the nations in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

ASEAN comprises Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei and Laos.

“A regional approach to energy security will help manage its supply and demand m crucial requirement of these highgrowth economies,” CII said in its report titled 'ASEAN-India: Identifying emerging opportunities together'.

It added that India has begun collaboration with a few ASEAN countries such as Vietnam and Myanmar in areas like renewable energy and refineries.

With the success of CO-WIN app, India can support other countries who may want to use CO-WIN or design a similar digital vaccination management system, according to the industry chamber.

ASEAN-India trade witnessed a decline of 9.2 per cent in the last fiscal due to the pandemic and ASEAN’s trade expansion with US and China. The decline in trade and India’s increasing trade deficit in the last few years have led to a call for a review of free trade agreements (FTA) with ASEAN, as India targets better trade balance.

“The review will be aimed at issues such as removal of non-tariff measures, especially in the auto and agriculture sectors, and rules of origin,” CII said.

This is crucial as since the FTA finalisation, India’s imports from ASEAN continued to increase sharply, in comparison with exports. As a result, India’s trade deficit increased to $15.9 billion in the last fiscal from $4.9 billion in fiscal 2010-11.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)