The Hindu Business Line : India, Japan announce Special Partnership plan

Seeking a quantum jump in bilateral ties, India and Japan announced on Friday a Special Economic Partnership Initiative meant to promote Japanese investment in India and help develop India's infrastructure and manufacturing.

This would include help in building a dedicated multi-modal high axle load freight corridors with computerised controls on the Mumbai-New Delhi and Howrah-New Delhi routes.

The feasibility report on the project is expected to be ready in ten months.

Joint statement

A joint statement issued at the end of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh's discussions with Japan's Prime Minister, Mr Shinzo Abe, said this was being flagged off even as the two sides negotiate the contours of an Economic Partnership Agreement, which it hoped would be completed in two years.

The EPA will help remove all the impediments in the way of enhancing trade and investment between the two countries.

The statement noted that the two sides will also examine how Japanese technology could be used in locomotives and other equipment in the Railways.

The Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor alongside the freight corridor will consist of industrial estates and special economic zones. A multi-product Special Economic Zone or cluster will be set up to locate units from Japan with facilities for manufacturing and processing industries, hotels and recreational units. The Japanese government will encourage investment by companies from its country by developing infrastructure at these special economic zones.

Japanese energy companies have been invited to participate in the building of the 4,000 MW ultra mega power project at Chayyur in Tamil Nadu and the 3,000 MW Lohit Hydroelectric Plant in Arunachal Pradesh.

Japanese auto and auto-component companies would be helped to set up new capacities in India.

India has invited Japanese participation in the development of airports through public-private partnership and also through grants from the Japanese Government's Overseas Development Assistance window, a proposal Japan says it will consider seriously.

Poor infrastructure in India was the most common refrain of Japanese businessmen as they tried to explain their subdued interest in investing in India. Mr Abe was confident that the situation would change.

When asked by the media what it would take Japanese companies to regain ground lost in India, he said that based on the measures taken today, he believed that trade and investments from Japan would increase very soon.

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