By Mukesh Kaushik Seoul, May 20 (UNI) Making a strong pitch for “Make in India” initiative for the South Koreans, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Korean President Park Geun-hye  launched the first-ever India-Korea CEOs Forum with a call to companies of both the nations to leverage the changes in business environment. Addressing the forum, Mr Modi hoped that the interactions among the CEOs of the two sides would prove to be fruitful. The launch of the forum is a major highlight of Mr Modi’s two days visit to Seoul, as its comes a day after the summit level talks between the countries, during which both sides inked seven agreements and MoUs for cooperation in diverse fields, including avoidance of double taxation. The Korean side had also pledged USD 10 billion dollars of assistance for infrastructural projects. “From IT and electronics to automobile and steel, Korea has given exemplary products to the world. Similarly, Korean companies are very strong in construction sector and were involved in building iconic structures around the world,” he said. Later, the Prime Minister had one-on-one talks with CEOs of some of the top Korean companies to discuss with them the business prospects. “We in India want to achieve a lot of what Korea has already done. That is why I, along with a large business delegation, are here. The good news is that India-Korea bilateral trade has risen after signing of Korea-India CEPA in January 2010,” Mr Modi said. The Korean President supported Mr Modi's views by saying that manufacturing and Information and Communication Technology sectors have immense potential for further cooperation. She talked about the commonality of interest between the two sides and called for enhanced mutual engagement. Mr Modi was of the view that there was still a lot of scope for improvement, as South Korea ranks only 14th in FDI flows in India. Talking about the ship-building capacity of Korea and India’s agenda of port-led development, he said it can can become a driver of growth. “Since my Government has taken over, we are working day and night to create conditions for faster and inclusive growth. We want a quantum jump in all this. There is no time for incremental changes. The sectors which are strong in Korea are very important for the development of my country,” Mr Modi said. He said water, transportation, railways, sea ports, ship-building, electricity including renewable, IT infrastructure and services, electronics, construction industry are very promising sectors in India. Mr Modi said his government was making taxation system more stable, predictable and transparent with many taxation issues affecting the foreign investors already been resolved. UNI MK SV SB 0930