India, South Korea to Increase Investments and Fight Protectionism

The two countries sign agreements to establish $9 billion in concessional credit.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. (Photo: PTI)

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley arrived in South Korea on a four-day visit to participate in the economic dialogue between the two countries and the 2nd Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Jaitley co-chaired the fifth India-Korea Financial Dialogue in Seoul with South Korea Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon, where the two countries signed agreements to establish $9 billion in concessional credit and $1 billion in Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding for infrastructure development projects in India.

As part of the visit, industry body FICCI, along with Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry, is organising a seminar where Jaitley will address businessmen from leading companies and SMEs, as well as corporate and institutional investors.

As the world's fastest growing major economy, India offers Korea important opportunities to deploy its capital and technologies in India, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The signing of the credit and ODA agreement was to implement a decision taken during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to South Korea in May 2015.

With this, Republic of Korea became one of the first non G-7 countries to become an Official Development Assistance (ODA) contributor in India

Finance Ministry statement

Both ministers also agreed to consider deploying part of this fund towards smart city projects in India. "They also agreed to establish a mechanism at senior official levels, to identify good infrastructure projects in India, to draw upon these funds,' the statement added.

Earlier in the day, Jaitley met Korean Defence Minister, Gen Han Min-koo and discussed the rapidly growing bilateral defence partnership.

(With inputs from PTI.)