Japanese companies should relocate their manufacturing to India as the only way to strengthen the bilateral partnership, the Indian government said on Sunday.
"You have to relocate your manufacturing base into India. This is the only way you can strengthen Japan's and Indian partnership for the future," Industrial Policy and Promotion Secretary Amitabh Kant said at a special session on Japan during the government's Make in India Week event here.
"You've to capture India and you've to capture the world and the only way you can do it is if you manufacture here," said Kant, who has been named the chief executive designate of the NITI Aayog.
Noting instances where Japanese countries have missed out on opportunities in India, he said that South Korean electronics majors like Samsung and LG are household names in the country at present.
"The level of trust between India and Japan is very high and it is for this that Japan is the only developed country with which India has an FTA (free trade agreement)," said NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya.
Describing the easy availability of capital in Japan and the cheap labour in India as being complementary to each other, he said Japanese companies present in China may also like to come to India because of the difficulties being faced by China's growth slowdown.
