 "Arun Jaitley")
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday — the first of his six-day Japan visit— met the CEO of SoftBank Group, Masayoshi Son, who is eyeing to invest big in India's solar power sector. The meeting took place in the capital of Asia’s second largest economy, Tokyo.
“There are people who want to participate in infrastructure growth story. For example, SoftBank meeting we just had, they are looking at one of the biggest investments in solar power already,” Jaitley said after meeting Son.
In June 2015, SoftBank announced formation of joint venture (JV) with Bharti Enterprises and Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, to invest about $20 billion in renewable energy in India. The JV would aim to generate 20 gigawatts of electricity.
“They have made considerable headway and have identified location. It will probably be one of the largest investment in those areas,” Jaitley added.
The Japanese telecom and Internet giant has made an investments up to $2 billion in the past two years in India, including $627 million in online- retailing marketplace Snapdeal, $210 million funding round in taxi-hailing app Ola Cabs and $200 million for a 35 per cent stake in InMobi, an Indian mobile-advertising network. SoftBank is looking to accelerate their investments in the future.
“India has a great future. We are interested in investing for Internet companies also for solar energy. We would make a strong commitment,” Son said.
Son had previously said that India's market is poised for massive growth, making it an important destination for investors.
Jaitley will also meet the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on Monday. On May 31, He will attend the 22nd International Conference on 'The Future of Asia' organised by the Nikkei Inc and in the afternoon he will deliver keynote address at the roundtable on National Investment & Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).
