The government of Japan plans to double its private sector investment plan in India to 10 trillion yen ($68 billion) in the next 10 years, a Tokyo-based media report states.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba are likely to make the new target official at their meeting in Tokyo on August 29, Japan's The Asahi Shimbun report said. The action follows Japan's existing goal of investing 5 trillion yen in five years, initially announced in March 2022 by then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during his India visit.
The new investment objective is anticipated to be part of a joint statement following the summit talks between the two leaders. PM Modi’s three-day visit to Japan, beginning August 29, marks his first trip to the country since attending the G7 summit in Hiroshima in May 2023.
Japanese companies have invested almost 1 trillion yen a year on average in India, and the new target is set to increase private-sector involvement even higher, the report added.
The governments also intend to establish an Economic Security Initiative, a bilateral cooperation mechanism aimed at addressing economic security issues, including maintaining steady supplies of essential materials and protecting key infrastructure. The focus areas will be on semiconductors, critical minerals, telecommunications, clean energy, pharmaceuticals, and scientific areas such as artificial intelligence.
AI Cooperation Initiative will particularly encourage cooperation in AI-related technology and startups. Moreover, a project called Digital Partnership 2.0 is anticipated to deepen economic cooperation from manufacturing to include emerging tech areas, such as semiconductors, AI, and startups, reports The Asahi Shimbun.
While PM Modi is in Japan, India and Japan are expected to update and refine the 2008 security cooperation joint declaration, making it congruent with existing priorities and meeting challenges of today. In the area of clean energy, both countries will release a Joint Statement on Energy Dialogue to facilitate cooperation that can help decarbonise, grow their economies, and ensure energy security.
The implementation of the Joint Crediting Mechanism, a two-way system that allows Japan to apply carbon emission reduction gains through the use of its greenhouse gas-reducing technologies in India toward Japan's own reduction goals, is also anticipated.
The governments are mulling new people-to-people exchange targets, such as "over 500,000 people coming and going in five years" and "welcoming 50,000 Indian nationals" to Japan.
On the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, with Japanese support, the two Prime Ministers are expected to finalize an agreement on bringing in the next-generation E10 series bullet train being built by East Japan Railway Co.
PM Modi will also witness signing of over 100 memoranda of understanding between Indian and Japanese companies across a spectrum of investment projects.
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