India top choice for Japanese companies

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 5

India has emerged as a preferred destination for Japanese investment and the amount for investment agreed upon for this year is $5 billion (Rs 35,000 crore) for infrastructure, water, transport and power projects.

The transport segment, of which metro and the high-speed Mumbai-Ahmedabad link are a part – will get more than 60 per cent of it.

Reeling out figures in a chat with The Tribune, Katsuo Matsumoto, Chief Representative in India of Japan Investment Cooperation Agency (JICA), said, “India has been our largest development partner in the past 10 years. We are increasing the total commitment to India.”

It has risen from $2 billion 10 years ago to $5 billion, said the JICA chief in India, adding that that for the past few years, India has been a preferred destination followed by Vietnam, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Every year, we pose a question within Japan to companies. India, in the past few years, has emerged the top choice of the companies, he added. Already some 1,400 Japanese companies are operating in India and some 9,000 Japanese are working here.

On being asked about the target of JICA, he said, “We are focusing on economic and social development along with infrastructure development.”

The JICA has got requests from state governments to finance big projects like metro rail, he said. The Japanese are already funding metro-rail projects in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai. “Phase IV (the next phase) of Delhi Metro is coming and we are looking to finance that,” he said.

Work on the high-speed rail corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad has commenced.

On being asked about the ongoing crop diversification project in Himachal Pradesh, he said, “We are providing technical cooperation on diversification in types of food, on how to increase productivity and conservation of agri-diversity.”

The agency has been working on social schemes like water supply and water storage. It has worked on a sewerage project in Amritsar that was finished last year. In Haryana, it has another project. In Rajasthan, a forestry project is coming up.

On the Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor (CBIC), Matsumoto said a master plan was being prepared to improve the investment climate and JICA would provide the finance. The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) is under construction.

On the social front, Japan is working with India to rehabilitate Rohingya refugees in Myanmar by supporting facilities like education and housing.