India-Japan seek closer economic cooperation

The business community of Japan is all for strengthening bilateral trade and economic relations between India and Japan, which would unlock vast investment potential.

This was stated by chairman standing committe of Japan-Indo business cooperation committee council Isamu Nitta at the India-Japan business dialogue organised by FICCI today.

He said that the future challenge for the two countries would be to strengthen cooperation between the two countries even further, keeping in mind the development of global partnership.

"There is a vast potential for higher levels of Japanese investment in India in a variety of sectors like infrastructure, telecom, power and construction, where Japanese businessmen could make use of the growing opportunities in this country," Nitta said.

A high level business delegation is accompanying Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi who is on a state visit to India.

Nitta said that among the proirity areas for Japan is to work out an free trade agreement (FTA) with India on broader perspective and not merely lowering of the tariff levels.

Speaking at the occasion Geetanjali Kirloskar, co-chairperson, Indo-Japan Business Cooperation Committee (IJBCC), said that India now is seeking a new economic partnership with Japan, with a shift from an overseas development assistance (ODA) based relationship to a FDI based relationship.

She also suggested that India and Japan should move towards signing the India Japan Comprehensive Co operation Agreement.

"As the first step, we can go for a preferential tariff arrangement in manufactured goods, than in to services and finally in to agriculture," she said.

Meanwhile, Indian Industry also made a strong case for Japan to increase its share of globally sourced it spend from mere 3% currently to make the kind of gains US is making from sourcing their IT  requirements to countries like India.

India Inc also appealed their Japanase counterparts to mount pressure on their government to relax tax laws around the import of IT services and BPO services and encourage Japanese companies to use India as their prime partner in global services sourcing.