More than 70 per cent of India's exim trade will come from Foreign Trade Agreement (FTA) in the next two-three years as over 12 countries will be collaborating with India, a senior government official said.
This presently stands at 10 per cent and is expected to jump to 70 per cent in the next 2-3-years, the official said.
Currently, India's exim trade stands at $500-billion of which export stands at $200-billion and import at $300-billion.
"In the next two-three-years, we will collaborate with a number of states like the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Japan, Namibia, South Africa and Gulf states, among others," Ministry of Commerce, Director (Trade Services Division), Ajay Shrivastava, said here.
After signing an agreement with The Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Korea early this year, India is now expanding its business relations across the globe.
During the recent recession (only now beginning to mend), India had emerged as a hot destination for emerging economies for exports, he said.
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"All these countries have started negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to expand further their relationship," Shrivastava said.
The Commerce Ministry official also said that there is a huge potential to increase cross-border investment as well as services exports and it was essential that negotiations cover those areas, particularly IT, film and education sectors.
"The agreements are like stepping stones towards international integration into a global free market economy," Shrivastava said.