PM Modi pitches India story to Japan Inc: PLI, record FDI, emerging technology

Tokyo: In a bid to woo Japanese investments, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met top business leaders from the Asian country, including Masayoshi Son of SoftBank, Osamu Suzuki of Suzuki Motor Corp and Uniqlo CEO Tadashi Yanai, to discuss investment opportunities India offers in sectors ranging from textiles, automobiles to emerging technologies and startups.

Modi, who reached Tokyo on a two-day visit to attend a summit of Quad leaders at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida, held separate bilateral meetings with Japanese business leaders.

He also met top executives and CEOs of 34 Japanese companies at the business roundtable. Majority of these companies have investments and operations in India and these companies represent diverse sectors including automobiles, electronics, semiconductors, steel, technology, trading and banking & finance. Key business bodies and organizations from India and Japan such as Keidanren, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Japan-India Business Consultative Committee (JIBCC) and Invest India also participated in the event.

Stressing that India and Japan are natural partners, Prime Minister Modi lauded the business community as “brand ambassadors of the immense potential of India-Japan ties”.

According to a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs, Modi said that during the visit of Prime Minister Kishida to India in March 2022, both countries had set an ambitious target of investment of Japanese Yen 5 trillion over the next 5 years.

“Prime Minister highlighted recent developments in economic ties, such as India-Japan Industrial Competitiveness Partnership (IJICP) and Clean Energy Partnership, among others. He talked about initiatives such as the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, and semiconductor policy and highlighted the robust startup ecosystem of India,” the MEA statement said.

Modi noted that despite the slowdown in global FDI, India has attracted record FDI of USD 84 billion in the previous financial year.

“He termed this a vote of confidence in India’s economic potential”, the statement said, and he invited greater participation by Japanese companies in India and proposed celebrating Japan’s contribution to India’s development journey in the form of a ‘Japan Week’.

He first met electronic giant NEC Corporation’s Chairman Nobuhiro Endo, followed by a meeting with Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo’s CEO Tadashi Yanai. This was followed by meetings with Son and Suzuki to discuss investment opportunities.

In his meeting with Endo, Modi appreciated NEC’s role in India’s telecommunication sector, especially in undertaking Chennai-Andaman and Nicobar Islands (CANI) and Kochi-Lakshadweep Islands (KLI) optical fibre cable projects, the Ministry of External Affairs said, in a statement. He also highlighted investment opportunities under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.