Piyush Goyal pitches India as investment hub for Japan firms, stresses on trade expansion

It is important that Japan and India expand tre and business relationships, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said Thursday while pitching country as an attractive investment destination to Japanese investors.

Speaking at third edition of  Invest India Exclusive Investment Forum - Japan Edition, through video conference, Goyal said, "I have confidence that we can overcome any versity and undoubtedly we will come out successful in any which way wher in geopolitical, strategic matters, wher in tre, ecomy and industry, and more importantly Japan is one of most important and trusted tring partner."

Minister said government is preparing strategies and action plans to set out a red carpet for global investors to continue to choose India as preferred destination for investments. Goyal highlighted reforms initiated by Central and state governments that mand to take India up by more than 65 places in last five years in Ease of Doing Business ranking of World Bank.

Dwelling on Indo-Japan close relationship, Goyal said that both share common interests in ecomic and strategic fields. He said that ecomic relations between India and Japan have vast potential for growth.

"Japan’s interest in India is increasing due to a variety of reasons including India’s large and growing market. With its large population and growing consumer base, India is preferred destination for Japanese investments. re are more than 1400 Japanese companies to work within India and well treated 5000 business establishments around country,” he said.

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Goyal said that Japan and India have a fruitful relationship for a long time in various sectors including automobiles, chemicals, consumer goods, food processing, and today's digital world provides numerous opportunities.  partnerships thus far have focused on technical cooperation and we are w looking to Japan as a strategic and investment development partner.

Meanwhile, a senior Commerce Ministry official said India is planning to set up 13th Japanese industrial township in Assam, a move aimed at promoting domestic manufacturing and strengning ecomic ties between two countries. He said that y are working on a GIS-enabled database of industrial areas and clusters across country.

India has 12 Japanese industrial townships across nine states. se are integrated industrial parks with rey to move in infrastructure facilities, with world-class infrastructure, plug and play factories, pre-approved licenses, and investment incentives exclusively for Japanese companies.

Improving tre relations with Tokyo assumes fresh significance as New Delhi w tries to ease its tre dependence on China. Especially in lucrative tech sector, India wants to keep Chinese companies out, with recent example being app bans. As part of 'Make in India' and 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' initiatives, government is eyeing to attract investments in labor-intensive manufacturing sector and is luring multinational firms, including those based in Japan and East Asia, many of whom are looking to shift capacities out of China following Coronavirus pandemic.

(PTI Photo)

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