Singh announced an initial corpus of $1 million for setting up an India-ASEAN Science and Technology Fund and measures for capacity building and empowerment of youth.
Seeking the setting up of an India-Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Network on climate change, the Prime Minister proposed establishment of an India-ASEAN Green Fund with an initial contribution of $5 million for pilot projects to promote adaptation and mitigation technologies.
Addressing the 6th India-ASEAN Summit in Singapore, Singh wanted an agreement with the member states to work towards a target of one million tourist arrivals from ASEAN to India by 2010.
Noting that the target of bilateral trade of $30 billion for 2007 has already been achieved, he said "given the results so far, I propose that we set up a bilateral trade target of $50 billion by the year 2010".
To facilitate bilateral trade, the Prime Minister said the two sides should agree on a process to simplify the visa regime for businessmen to travel from India to ASEAN and vice-versa.
"I propose that our authorities in consultation with industry representatives formulate simple criteria for issue of visas to bona fide businessmen the same day," he said.
On the technological front, the Prime Minister said India-ASEAN Science and Technology Fund, created with an initial corpus of $1 million, should be used to encourage collaborative research and development so that "we can harness knowledge for the creation of wealth".
Observing that Indian tourists were increasingly looking eastwards and more than 2 million of them were expected to travel to the ASEAN holiday destinations this year, Singh said the number of tourist arrival from the 10-nation grouping to India had gone up to 280,000 but it was evident that there was a huge scope for expansion.
"I would, therefore, propose that we agree to work towards a target of one million tourist arrivals from ASEAN to India by the year 2010," he said.
Sharing India's vision of an Asian economic community consisting of an integrated market and linked by efficient road, rail, air and shipping services, he said "the creation of this 'arc of advantage' will be possibly if we can successfully create a robust institutional architecture for regional cooperation and action.
"The elements I have outlined earlier are the building blocks of this architecture," he said, noting that he was "extremely optimistic" about the future of India-ASEAN partnership and that "our relationship with the ASEAN countries is the pillar of our 'Look East' policy".
India, China discuss bilateral trade
