Mumbai - India aims to more than double trade with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), after signing a free trade agreement with the grouping.
Asean consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Bilateral trade between Asia's fourth-biggest economy and Asean is worth an annual R77.7 billion.
Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia accounted for 90 percent of that, CM Bhandari, a senior civil servant in India's foreign ministry, said on Wednesday. Increasing the amount to R179 billion should not be difficult, he said.
"The trade target is easily achieveable," said Michael Yeoh, chief executive at the Malaysia-based Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute."
"The region can co-operate in several areas including healthcare, tourism, education, transport and should ask the governments to eliminate the need for business visas to promote trade."
India was aiming for economic growth of more than 7 percent each year to create more jobs and remove poverty, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said last week.
The R3.46 trillion economy may grow 6.5 percent in the year to March 31 after expanding 8.2 percent in the previous year, the most in 15 years.
Getting more investment was the government's top priority, Singh said.
He added, without specifying a time frame, that India was negotiating a free trade agreement with Asean and was committed to lowering its tariffs to the levels prevalent in the region.
More Indians were visiting southeast Asian countries and increasing business contacts.
As many as 1 400 Indian companies set up operations or branches in Singapore over the past four years, said Pradeep Menon, an executive director at the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
As many as 400 000 Indians visited Singapore in 2004.
Menon proposed that India could provide skilled professionals to Singapore and Malaysia, and benefit from cheaper raw materials in Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Asean could also serve as a bridge between China and India.
Trade between India and China rose to R60 billion from R12 billion in 1993, so Menon suggested that it might rise to R600 billion by 2020.
Bhandari said India's seven northeastern states, located on mountains that also make its natural eastern border with Myanmar, could be used for providing road and railway links to southeast Asian nations.
India is working with Myanmar and Thailand to build an international highway through the hilly states to open up a road link to southeast Asia.
India is also considering building a railway link to Myanmar.