India and Columbia on Tuesday inked a bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement.
The agreement was signed by Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Columbia Luis Guillermo Plata.
After signing of the agreement, both Ministers hoped that the agreement would serve as a catalyst in boosting investment flows between the two countries.
The agreement aims at enhancing bilateral investment and technology flows between the two countries, by creating favourable conditions for investors.
These include a mutually acceptable definition of investment as also IPR, besides national treatment and most favoured nation treatment on post-establishment basis, protection against expropriation, except for a public purpose against a fair and equitable compensation, full reparability of investment and returns.
The agreement provides elaborate dispute resolution mechanism to settle disputes between an investor and the host Government or between the two governments.
Dispute resolution mechanism includes recourse to negotiations, conciliation, domestic dispute resolution mechanism and to international arbitration. The agreement shall remain in force for a period of ten years and thereafter, it shall be deemed to have been automatically extended unless either country gives to the other country a written notice of its intention to terminate the agreement.
