Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has welcomed greater participation and increased investments from the leading Japanese business establishments in India’s manufacturing, textiles and technology sectors and invited them to become a party to India’s journey of being a global business hub in the coming years through company formation in India.
During his visit to Japan, the PM proposed celebrating Japan’s contribution to India’s development in the form of a ‘Japan Week’ on Monday 23rd May 2022.
The PM, on day one of his two-day visits, met the Chief Executives of leading Japanese multinational companies. He also held a meeting with the CEO of the Japanese multinational clothing brand Fast Retailing, the parent company of Uniqlo headquartered in Tokyo, Mr. Tadashi Yanai to explore investment opportunities for the retailer in textile manufacturing facilities in India.
The PM discussed with Mr. Tadashi about the growing presence of Uniqlo in India and briefed him on huge investment opportunities for textile manufacturing in the country under the recently launched Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme.
Mr. Yanai Tadashi spoke highly of Indian IT talents and in general, appreciated the entrepreneurship acumen of Indian businessmen. PM Modi urged the business leader of the retail behemoth to participate in the PM-MITRA scheme that is solely focused on strengthening the textiles sector. Both of them also discussed ways of doing business in India and making investments in the production and retail sectors of India.
The Indian PM also appraised Mr. Yanai on various reforms being undertaken by his government to facilitate ease of doing business for foreign investors by simplifying taxation and labour laws.
A meeting was also held with the Chairperson of Nippon Electric Company ((NEC), Dr Nobuhiro Endo in Tokyo and during this meeting, PM Modi appreciated NEC’s role in India’s telecommunication sector and discussed future business opportunities in emerging innovative technologies in India including smart cities. Mr. Endo also shed light on an innovative effort to encourage learning of the Japanese language in India.
The Indian PM appraised the NCC chairperson on tremendous business and growth opportunities in different areas including FinTech, infra and logistics networks and online digital learning.
PM Modi also met SoftBank founder, Mr. Masayoshi Son who spoke about the rapid economic growth of India in recent times due to the huge surge in Indian startups and unicorns. Mr. Son noted that the future of India looked bright and praised the Indian Prime Minister for remaining committed to the country’s success with all-out government support for startups and innovative emerging technologies.
The Indian community in Tokyo greeted PM Modi with a warm welcome as he arrived there for the Quad Summit. The Indian PM on his arrival in Tokyo, praised the Indian community for its trailblazing contributions in many areas positively transforming human lives across the globe. Mr. Modi also noted that the Indian diaspora in Japan has also maintained and nurtured its roots in India.
The Indian Prime Minister, in an opposite editorial page titled ‘India Japan: A Partnership for Peace, Stability and Prosperity, of a leading Japanese newspaper, wrote that India and Japan would contribute toward building an inclusive, open and free Indo-Pacific region, connected by secure seas, integrated by trade and investment, defined by respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and anchored in international law. Mr. Modi in his writing also affirmed increased defence ties between the two countries spanning exercises and information sharing to defence manufacturing.
The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework event in Tokyo was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. During his speech at the event, PM Modi added that India would work for an inclusive and flexible Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. Mr. Modi while delivering his speech highlighted Trust, Transparency and Timeliness as fundamentals to achieve this objective.
Recent developments in economic ties between the two countries including India-Japan Industrial Competitiveness Partnership (IJICP) and Clean Energy Partnership among others were also emphasized by the Indian PM. He also discussed other initiatives such as the semiconductor policy, National Infrastructure Pipeline etc. taken by his government. The ambitious Japanese investment target worth 5 trillion Yen made during PM Kishida’s visit to India in March 2022 also came up during Mr. Modi’s discussions.
