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Cooperation in Infrastructure Sought

  • India and Japan need to establish firm partnerships and enter into a new era of economic cooperation to capitalise on mutual complementarities, feels Japanese prime minister Yoshihiko Noda.“I am convinced that we need to strengthen the partnership. India and Japan are stepping up their cooperation in areas like political, security and economic fields,” said Noda who is leading a 27-member business delegation on his three-day visit to India. He was addressing the joint business forum, organised by industry chambers Assocham, CII and Ficci.According to Noda, the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, signed in August, between the two countries will further enhance India-Japan economic relationship.
  • Meanwhile India’s commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma has sought Japanese cooperation in areas of infrastructure development, agro processing and pharmaceuticals.“Over the next couple of decades, we will see massive expansion in Indian infrastructure with over a trillion dollar being invested in the sector in next five years. India has a structured dialo-gue with Japan which seeks to promote cooperation in this sector,” Sharma said.The Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor and Dedicated Freight Corridor are the most ambitious infrastructure projects conceived so far which will have integrated townships. At the same time, the National Manufacturing Policy aims to boost production in sectors like electronics hardware, information technology, agro food processing and green power technologies.
  • Sharma further said that India is setting up about 46 agro-processing zones wherein Japanese knowledge and experience would be of great help to India, adding that the two countries are on course to achieve bilateral trade target of $25 billion by 2014.India-Japan bilateral trade saw a robust increase of 24 per cent to $13.2 billion during January-September period on the back of the mutual free trade agreement. Dilip Modi, president of Assocham, said the time is ripe to strengthen bilateral cooperation.

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