As many as 16 countries are currently in the huddle for the 27th round of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations. The forum of South-East Asian nations are hoping to thrash out a free trade agreement (FTA) and India is under pressure over its tariff regime.

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Thailand's envoy to India Chutintorn Gongsakdi told CNBC-TV18 that RCEP would be pointless without India and the world today needs Indian workers.

“I am one of those who is positive. We are positive because in the past year, everyone showed flexibility including India. We thank India for showing flexibility,” he said.

“People are disappointed that India's minister of commerce won’t be in Beijing, but negotiations are not expected to end in Beijing. They will go on and there are a few sessions lined up including one in Thailand. We can announce the conclusion of negotiations on the text part. The talks on the other half, which is where the bread and butter is, the market access part, can be continued next year,” he added.

“If we are able to announce the conclusion of the agreement on the text this year, that will send a positive message,” said Gongsakdi.

When asked about India’s reservations about Chinese imports, he said, “India’s concerns are important because everyone at the table has to be comfortable. So one of the things that came up from meetings is rules of origin. So even if the goods are not coming from China, they could come from China and then be re-exported through other countries as people are trying to circumvent the US restrictions. So rules of origin will be one of the issues that we have to look at.”

The envoy said Thailand needed Indian IT workers for its new projects. “The reality of the world is that we need Indian workers. For example, in Thailand we now have millions of workers from neighbouring countries. We are now short of 1.8 lakh IT workers. You can get them from India. I am trying to tie up with Indian educational institutions to get these workers for Thailand’s new project, Eastern Economic Corridor,” he stated.