Trade ties with India to be strengthened: Japanese minister
By IANSSaturday, January 22, 2011
CHENNAI - India and Japan are moving closer towards concluding a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and Japanese companies are interested investing in rare earth mining, infrastructure development projects in India, a Japanese minister said Saturday.
Hideichi Okada, vice minister for international affairs in Japan’s ministry of economy, trade and industry, said two Japanese companies - JGC Corporation and Mizuho Corporate Bank- are involved in promoting an integrated township project on 1,450 acres near Chennai.
Speaking to reporters after signing a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the Tamil Nadu government, he said: “The two countries are progressing well to conclude CEPA. We are expecting the visit of (Commerce and Industry Minister) Anand Sharma to Tokyo soon.”
He said Japan has agreed to reduce tariffs and ease the restrictions on work permit for Indians to work there and on production on generic drugs.
“The two countries had come to a broad agreement on CEPA two years ago, Okada said.
To a query, he said Japanese mining companies are interested exploring opportunity in mining of rare earth in India.
“China has reduced its export quota for rare earth not only to Japan, but also to other countries, Okada said.
Not ruling out a possibility of second dip in the economic growth, he said: “The Japanese economy is growing at the rate of around 1.5 percent-similar to the growth rate of many advanced economies. The fall of Lehman Brothers impacted Europe and the US in a major way which had a cascading effect on the Japanese economy.”
On the impact of LOI with the Tamil Nadu government, he said around 40 Japanese companies are actively interested in investing in the state.
As per the LOI a working group has been set up to look at the investment opportunities for Japanese companies in Tamil Nadu.
On the integrated township project, Okada said the project will have an industrial park - to house Japanese manufacturers in auto components, electronics, light manufacturing, logistics and new emerging sectors, housing for Japanese expatriates and other social infrastructure.
The master plan is scheduled to be finalised by March 2011 and the project will be jointly developed by Ascendas, JGC Corporation and Mizuho Corporate Bank.
