Officials from Singapore and India have conducted a mid-term review of the bilateral Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) here, according to a joint statement issued here Saturday.

The statement was jointly issued by India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The two sides agreed that the CECA, signed in late June last year, has aroused awareness in businessmen from the two countries that helped boost bilateral trade and investment.

Trade volume between the two countries doubled in the past two years to reach 16.6 billion Singapore dollars (about 10.3 billion U.S. dollars ) in 2005 and Singapore became India's third largest investor and seventh largest cumulative investor last year.

Admitting the immense potential for the growth of bilateral trade and investments, the two sides agreed that their teams should engage in discussions to follow-up and improve on the CECA by August 1 this year.

They also discussed Singapore's intention to develop a Special Economic Zone in India, as well as the value of fine-tuning the provisions of the Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) in further encouraging investments.

Other issues discussed include the expansion of banks from the two countries in each other's markets and the work on the mutual recognition agreements in fields like electronics and electronic equipment, and telecommunications equipment.

The review was made during Indian Minister for Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath's two-day visit to the city state which ended Saturday.

Apart from meeting his Singaporean counterpart Lim Hng Kiang for the review, Nath also met Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong respectively during his stay here.

Source: Xinhua