Article Posted on : - Mar 25, 2013

KOCHI (PTI): The Defence Ministry is in the final stages of preparing the New Procurement Policy, which will 'aggresively' pursue indigenisation, Defence Minister A K Antony said here on Monday.

"We are also very very particular to aggressively pursue indigenisation, especially after our many experiences... The new procedures will give further impetus and a new momentum to indiginisation", he told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

He was responding to a question on the Union Commerce Minister making a strong pitch to raise the FDI limit in the defence sector from 26 per cent to 75 per cent.

"Regarding other things, we are not for any hasty decision. So at the moment we cannot take a decision hastily," he said.

The procurement policy will henceforth be reviewed every year. Earlier, it was being reviewed every two years, he said.

Antony also said terrorism was not confined to one country.

No single country can say it is protected from terrorism, he said, adding, regional and international cooperation is needed to wipe out terrorism.

The minister said he would be attending the meeting of Defence ministers of ASEAN nations at Brunei in June in which China and the US would also be taking part.

"We will discuss how to further expand cooperation among the ASEAN nations," he said.