India, South Korea working to double bilateral trade by 2030: Piyush Goyal

Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said India will set up a dedicated South Korean township on the lines of existing Japanese industrial townships to attract investments and deepen manufacturing cooperation.

While speaking on the sidelines of the India-Korea Business Forum in New Delhi, he said a large steel plant with an investment of about $6 billion is also being set up in Odisha as part of the 16 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) signed during the engagement.

Bilateral trade

Referring to bilateral trade ties, Goyal said New Delhi is now working towards doubling trade with Seoul, while noting that the 2010 trade agreement was irrational and not helpful to India, leading to a tripling of the trade deficit.

However, while addressing the business forum, Goyal said both countries have been tasked by their leadership to raise two-way trade from the current $27 billion to $54 billion by 2030.

The minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung have discussed creating a Korea-specific industrial enclave in India with plug-and-play infrastructure to encourage greater investment and facilitate the entry of more Korean companies into the Indian market.

According to him, the proposed enclave would also help Korean firms leverage India’s domestic demand and preferential market access through multiple free trade agreements.

Goyal said India and South Korea have agreed on a fast-track, mission-mode approach to upgrading the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), focusing on removing non-tariff barriers, easing rules of origin, expanding market access, and improving ease of doing business to make the partnership more balanced.

He said sectors such as semiconductors, electronics, advanced manufacturing, e-mobility, green energy, shipbuilding and digital trade offer strong complementarities between the two economies, adding that companies from both sides can collaborate through co-production, co-design, co-creation and co-innovation for global markets.

Highlighting India’s economic prospects, Goyal said the country, currently a $4 trillion economy, is on a road map to become a $30 trillion economy by 2047. He added that despite global turbulence, India remains an oasis of stability due to reforms, infrastructure investment and sustained policy support for ease of doing business.

He also termed the MoU on the India-Korea Industrial Cooperation Committee—comprising four working groups on trade, industry, strategic resources and clean energy—a landmark step in deepening bilateral economic engagement.

Addressing the business forum, President of the Republic of Korea (ROK), Lee Jae Myung, said India, as the world’s fourth-largest economy and home to 1.4 billion people, stands as a key pillar of the global economy.

He also noted that there is significant scope to further expand business and trade, adding that bilateral trade has considerable room for growth and, with sustained efforts, is expected to double alongside ongoing negotiations on the CEPA.

Economic corridor

In the same event, Anant Goenka, president of FICCI and vice-chairman of RPG Group, said that from semiconductors and electric vehicles to digital technologies and artificial intelligence, India’s scale aligns seamlessly with Korea’s innovation strengths. He noted that together, both countries can build a resilient and future-ready economic corridor.

Highlighting the ongoing reconfiguration of global supply chains, Goenka stated that India and Korea have a unique opportunity to develop a diversified, innovation-led economic corridor that is less vulnerable to external shocks and geared towards long-term resilience.