India is keen to increase the manufacturing sector’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) to 25 per cent, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, said while adding that Japan is a natural partner in India’s goals.
The Minister was speaking at the India conference held in Nagoya city in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture. She commended the Aichi Prefecture contribution towards value addition in manufacturing in spite of high savings rate in the Prefectures in the country.
It was also discussed at the event that India could learn from Aichi Prefecture on how to increase growth in manufacturing along with savings.
Sitharaman acknowledged the growth in the foreign direct investment (FDI) from Japan to India in the past few years. Though Japan is the third largest investor in the country with cumulative FDI of $25.2 billion during the period April 2000 – December 2016, followed by Mauritius and Singapore, it can be considered as the top investing country because the other two nations are used by organisations from all over the world to route their investments.
Hideaki Ohmura, the Governor of Aichi Prefecture, acknowledged that the Conference will give a boost to the partnership between the two nations and encourage the firms in Aichi Prefecture for investing in India.
Hideaki stated that companies in Aichi Prefecture have the appetite to increase their businesses overseas and hoped that the partnership between the two sides would bring prosperity.
The Indian Minister urged the Governor for considering investment diversification in several other sectors like textiles, food processing, electronics, medical equipment, information technology, etc.
Sitharaman also extended an invitation to Hideaki to lead a business delegation to MSME clusters in India for exploring opportunities for investment and partnership.
She highlighted the major reforms undertaken by the Indian government in ease of doing business including the clearance of Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill, the introduction of a new Insolvency and Bankruptcy code, reducing the corporate tax and commitment to bring it at par with global benchmarks, etc.
Sitharaman also stressed the importance of the government’s flagship initiatives such as Start-Up India, Digital India, and the JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhar, and Mobile) trinity for driving the growth in future.
By Baishakhi Dutta
