Piyush Goyal highlights India’s potential as global supply chain hub at 14-nation Indo-Pacific meet

New Delhi, March 14: Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal on Thursday highlighted India's potential for providing global supply chain diversification opportunities, at the 14-nation Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) meeting.

He joined US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara and the ministers from the 11 other IPEF countries in their first ministerial meeting this year.

Addressing the virtual ministerial meeting, Minister Goyal called for an expeditious implementation of all the action-oriented collaborative elements under various IPEF Pillars. On the Pillar-II (Supply Chains Resilience) Agreement, which entered into force on 24 February 2024, he highlighted India’s global production capacities in many critical sectors, which provide supply diversification opportunities for IPEF partners.

During the virtual ministerial meeting on Pillars II-IV, IPEF partners welcomed the significant progress made since the substantial conclusion of the negotiations for the proposed IPEF Clean Economy Agreement (Pillar III), the IPEF Fair Economy Agreement (Pillar IV), and Agreement on IPEF in November 2023. The IPEF partners also discussed the ongoing cooperative work ahead across the three proposed agreements, according to an official statement released after the meeting.

Additionally, IPEF partners welcomed the coming into force of the IPEF Supply Chain Agreement with effect from 24 February 2024. The texts of the proposed Clean Economy Agreement, Fair Economy Agreement, and Agreement on IPEF were also made public.

Highlighting the 'Prime Minister Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana’ as a project that not only furthers clean economy objectives but also generates large socio-economic multiplier effects, Minister Goyal invited investors from IPEF partners to invest and benefit from the trillion-dollar-plus opportunity that India provides in the clean economy domain.

The IPEF partners also discussed the next steps to deliver concrete outcomes under the Framework over the next several months. This includes several new lines of effort under the Clean Economy pillar, including the launching of four new Cooperative Work Programs (CWPs), announcing that the inaugural IPEF Clean Economy Investor Forum will be held in Singapore on June 5-6, and providing more details on the IPEF Catalytic Capital Fund.

The IPEF partners further announced that the Ministers will next meet in person in Singapore on June 6 to discuss the Supply Chain Agreement, the Clean Economy Agreement, the Fair Economy Agreement, and the Agreement on IPEF.

IPEF was launched in May 2022, bringing together 14 regional partners – Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam – in a new model of economic cooperation.