India, US to expand economic ties

washington: the united states has outlined the major features of the expansion of the indo-us economic dialogue, one of the main elements of the bush administration's policy aimed at fundamentally transforming the relations between the two countries. in a factsheet, the state department, detailed the features of the dialogue saying that in conjunction with the november 9 meeting between president george w bush and prime minister atal bihari vajpayee, the two sides announced the expansion and intensification of us-india economic dialogue.the dialogue, inaugurated in march 2000, was intended to institutionalise economic cooperation. it was originally comprised of three fora: a financial and economic forum, commercial dialogue and a working group on trade. the two sides agreed during vajpayee's visit to expand the economic dialogue by significantly enhancing private sector interaction and by adding separate energy and environment components, the state department said. the dialogue's private sector counterpart will broaden and deepen ties between indian and us business communities and enable the government-to-government discussions to benefit fully from their practical and specific experiences, it said. us national economic council director larry lindsey and indian national security advisor brajesh mishra serve as coordinators for the dialogue. under secretary of state alan larson and prodipto ghosh, additional secretary in the prime minister's office, serve as executive secretaries responsible for advancing the dialogue, including especially on issues that cut across ministerial lines. us treasury secretary paul o'neill and finance minister ysahwant sinha held the initial financial and economic forum meeting in april and will meet again this month to discuss issues including forum's next steps. us trade representative robert zoellick and commerce minister murasoli maran renewed the working group on trade during their august meetings in new delhi. the us-india business council is serving as convener for the us side of the private sector counterpart, pulling together participants from a variety of sectors, companies, and organisations. the indian private sector is currently developing a structure for its participation. lindsey and mishra directed under secretary larson and ghosh to ensure the economic dialogue provides special attention to issues related to high technology, infrastructure and knowledge-based industries, the state department said in the factsheet.