Japan firms have big plans for India: FM

Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said many Japanese firms, like Kansai Paints and Daihatsu, were gearing up for huge investments in India.

"Our strong economic fundamentals make us a lucrative destination for diverse business interests," he said here.

Right now, Japanese FDI in India was prominent in sectors like automobile and electronics, he said, taking the names of Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Toyota, Sony and National as examples.

He invited Japanese investment in infrastructure, which had the potential to absorb up to $150 billion in the next 5-7 years.

Trying to dispel notions that only the services sector was growing in India, he said, "The manufacturing sector's growth rate is over 9 per cent and the capital goods sector's is at 15.9 per cent in the current year."

Dwelling on India's growth, the finance minister said the country had distinguished itself as one of the fastest growing world economies.

"Since 2003-04, India had embarked on a high-growth trajectory. Following a remarkable 8.5 per cent growth in gdp in 2003-04, the Indian economy achieved almost 7 per cent growth in 2004-05, and was likely to do better in the current fiscal," he said.

Apart from China, no other major economy in the world had achieved such impressive rates of growth in the recent years, he said.

In the coming years, the unfolding of India's growth story will be determined decisively by a unique demographic advantage. In the medium term, India is expected to possess one of the largest working age populations in the world," he said.