India and Malaysia are set to ramp up bilateral trade ties with the signing of a landmark pact for accelerating economic cooperation between the two nations on Friday.
The Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) will be signed by Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma and his Malaysian counterpart, Mustapa Mohamed, in the presence of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Sharma will arrive here tomorrow evening after signing a trade agreement with Japan.
Najib and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had both called for early conclusion of negotiations between the two countries on the CECA.
The two Prime Ministers said they were keen to see the CECA come into effect by July 1, 2011.
The CECA will cover trade in goods, services and investment, as well as other areas of economic cooperation.
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During his visit, Sharma will also pay a courtesy call on Prime Minister Najib and have a bilateral meeting with International Trade Minister Mustapa Mohamed.
He will also meet the President and office bearers of the Malaysia-India Business Council (MIBC), led by local industrialist Krishnan Tan.
The minister will be accompanied by a high-level business delegation led by B Muthuraman, the President (designate) of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), who is also Vice-Chairman of Tata Steel.
The other delegation members include CII Director-General Chandrajit Banerjee, Aircel Cellular Ltd Chairperson Suneeta Reddy, Bharat Earth Movers Ltd Executive Director Manish Singhal, Coal India Limited (ASSAM) General Manager Debashis Sarkar, Delhi International Airport (P) CEO - Corporate (Airports Sector) P S Nair, Hi-Tech Gears Limited Chairman and Managing Director Deep Kapuria and MAS GMR CEO Ranganathan Venkata Sheshan.