EAM Jaishankar urges Central Asia to diversify trade ahead of 4th India-Central Asia Dialogue

ANI

New Delhi, June 05 2025 (ANI): At the meeting of India-Central Asia Business Council, EAM Dr S Jaishankar said, "We need to diversify our trade baskets so that all of us have more options, we have more competition and in a way we are looking for new opportunities and I would like our friends from central asian economies to appreciate that an economy today which is bigger which is in excess of four trillion dollars which is growing at six to eight percent annually. It will create new demands for products, services and new demands out of more prosperous lifestyles. So there are many things we could be doing, we should be doing, which perhaps we have not looked at in the past..."

Transcript

00:00India's trade and economic ties with Central Asia over the last decade have actually shown

00:06a very strong positive trend.

00:10Mutual trade was less than $500 million a decade ago in 2014.

00:17And I must tell you, Mr. Panda, our numbers are a little higher than yours.

00:22So what we have collectively is actually a trade volume which is almost touching $2 billion.

00:29However, this figure does not reflect the full potential.

00:36The need to address this is today even more urgent because of the uncertainties of the

00:42global, of the international economy.

00:45And this requires governments and business to work together in tandem, which is why all

00:52of us are here in this room.

00:56Now, with that broad context, let me highlight three objectives before us.

01:05One is to deepen the existing cooperation, both in terms of volume and in terms of quality.

01:12There is already, I think, a recognition in each other's countries, in each other's economies,

01:19of the players and of the products.

01:22But we must build further on that foundation.

01:26And a very good example here is actually of the pharmaceutical sector.

01:31Two, we need to diversify our trade baskets so that all of us have more options, we have

01:42more competition and, in a way, we are looking for new opportunities.

01:48And I would like our friends from Central Asian economies to appreciate that an economy today,

01:56which is bigger, which is in excess of $4 trillion, which is growing at, you know, 6 to 8 percent

02:03annually.

02:04It will create new demands for products, for services, and, you know, even, I would say,

02:11in a way, new demands out of more prosperous lifestyles.

02:16So there are many things we could be doing, we should be doing, which perhaps we have not

02:21looked at in the past.

02:25So this looking beyond the currently traded goods and services is essential, really, to

02:32envisage and realise new opportunities.

02:36And the third is that we need to introduce greater sustainability and more predictability

02:43in our economic interactions.

02:45And that means more long-term contracts and arrangements, cross-investments, joint ventures,

02:53and certainly sectors like energy, whether we are talking uranium, whether we are talking

03:00crude oil, even potentially gas, whether we are looking at mining, if you are talking

03:07about coal or if you are discussing fertilisers, I think these are all relevant examples to reach

03:14really long-term understandings between us.

03:18So how do we do this?

03:20And I have three, five solutions here, really, to suggest.

03:26One, we look at the digital economy and innovation.

03:29I think Mr. Panda also dwelt on it.

03:33We are meeting at a time when e-commerce platforms, blockchains, cross-border digital payments are

03:40transforming the way the world interacts, trades, and affects payments.

03:46And India would be very happy to partner on, about platforms like the UPI, like Aadhaar,

03:53like DigiLocker with our Central Asian partners.

03:57And certainly greater use of digital technologies and AI applications will help us unlock the full

04:05potential of our trade and economic ties.

04:07And I would also add that it will be a great help to our tourists, to our students, to our

04:14medical travelers.

04:15And I think, colleagues, this is something that we have discussed this afternoon.

04:20The second solution lies in the field of financial services.

04:26And here, I would say, closer engagements between our banks and financial sector will definitely

04:32strengthen our economic interaction.

04:35Some beginnings have been made in terms of opening of special rupee vastro accounts in

04:40Indian banks, by Central Asian banks.

04:43And there's also been some discussion about use of UPI, Unified Payment Interface.

04:50I would certainly support that very strongly, as also the steps we could take to facilitate

04:58mutual settlement of trade in our national currencies.

05:03The third, which I referred to earlier, is healthcare and pharma.

05:07Today, India supplies about 60 percent of generic medicines globally.

05:14And pharmaceuticals certainly is one of our most important exports to Central Asia.

05:19But what we need to do is really to strengthen cooperation, especially between our drug regulators.

05:26And we could also look at covering medical services, including hospitals, clinics, and diagnostic

05:32centers, as also the supply of medical equipment and medical devices.

05:38The fourth issue, of course, is something we have debated for some years now.

05:43How do we improve our connectivity?

05:45Because that has been a big obstacle.

05:48And I hear talk about both land and air connectivity.

05:52So what this means is more resources and effort in the INSTC, the International North-South Transport

05:59Corridor, greater use of Chabahar port will surely reduce travel distance and costs.

06:07We are discussing this in a joint working group on Chabahar under the India-Central Asia platform.

06:13But I would really urge FIKI to look, to discuss with its members and discuss with the other

06:19chambers, the Central Asian chambers, whether, you know, how do we better address logistical

06:25challenges and present, if possible, recommendations to us in the next few months.

06:31And I should also add that we need to expand our air services and we need to create a competitive

06:38environment for goods transportation.

06:41And fifth, we need to streamline transit procedures.

06:45India and all the Central Asian countries, we are all members of the UNTIR, Carnet system.

06:52FIKI is the prime nodal agency in India for this system.

06:57And every Central Asian country has its own nodal agency.

07:01So the question before is, can we simplify customs procedure using the TIR Carnet to ease

07:08the flow of goods across borders?

07:10And again, can, you know, all the chambers get together and give us a consolidated roadmap

07:16or a recommendation in this regard.

07:20So, friends, in addition to all of these, I think you would agree that tourism, education,

07:27films, cultural exchanges, these are all important.

07:30They should be tapped for their economic and business potential.

07:33I would certainly urge all the chambers and their representatives to do more frequent exchanges,

07:40particularly sectors, specific business delegations.

07:45And we would welcome more inputs from the chambers.

07:49We would welcome more recommendations, how do we grow business.

07:53And I certainly hope that we would get it in time, because at some, you know, sometime

08:00in the not-so-distant future, we would like to see a leader summit between India and the

08:06Central Asian five.

08:08Now, tomorrow, we will be holding the fourth edition of the India-Central Asia dialogue

08:15at our level, at the foreign minister's level.

08:18And we will be deliberating on ways to further deepen our cooperation, especially the economic

08:24dimensions of our relationship.

08:26I would hope that from today's meeting, from the deliberations of the Business Council,

08:33very specific recommendations are made available to us.

08:37I wish the Business Council all success.

08:40And once again, I would like very much to appreciate the fact that my counterpart colleagues

08:48from Central Asia have all taken the time from busy schedules.

08:52They've come here in time to participate at this Council meeting.

08:57I think that itself sends a very serious and a very positive message to all of you.

09:03So, thank you very much for your attention.

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