Suresh Prabhu invites Japan to invest in insurance, banking sector; vows to export agro products

NEW DELHI: Almost a day after India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited US companies to invest in India during the India-US Business Summit, former commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu Thursday tried to woo Japanese investment in manufacturing as well as services sector positioning India as a safer and more reliable trade partner in the context of prevalent anxieties over supply chain based in China.

India Sherpa for G20 an G7, Prabhu invited Japanese investors to invest in the Indian insurance, banking sector besides setting up dedicated Japanese special economic zones (SEZs). He also asked them to import agriculture, horticulture, marine, and dairy products including meat from India.

“India will be the right destination for the Japanese manufacturing companies as Japan always looks forward to locating manufacturing capacity outside the country for good commercial and strategic reasons. That’s how Southeast Asia developed, that’s how some of the Chinese and South Koreans benefitted because of the Japanese investment,” said Prabhu while interacting with the Indian representatives of Japan’s top industry associations like JETRO, JICA, and JCCII during the webinar “India and Japan: Reshaping Agenda for Future Growth & Prosperity” organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Thursday. Rajan Lalwani moderated the session.

However, with an eye on Japan’s large huge financial capacity, Prabhu was quick enough to offer the Japanese honchos to invest in the service sector like insurance and banking. The similar offer, he had shared with the Korean trade and industry associations Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KOCHAM) a similar online interaction last week on July 15.

“But we do together can do a lot more in addition to infrastructure and industry, and it is in the services sector. There are a lot of Japanese companies in services. Iffco-Tokio is one of the leading non-life insurance companies in India. There is tremendous scope for Japanese banks, Japanese expansion funds,” he added.

Agriculture is the sector in which Narendra Modi floated for foreign investment during India-US Business Sumit, and Suresh Prabhu too was prompt to toss it up with the Japanese investors on Thursday.

“There are areas in which we can export to Japan, and these are agriculture products. We are already exporting marine products to Japan, as well as fruits like mangoes. But there is a possibility that we can work more aggressively which will benefit japan by importing from India. We can have the highest standards for food security as well as food quality.

Prabhu said as commerce industry minister he had unveiled India’s first agriculture export policy for exporting agriculture, horticulture, marine, and dairy products including meat.

“We can actually export all the five of these and it will benefit Japan as we have an FTA with Japan. Therefore, we should take advantage of the existing platforms and leverage it more for mutually benefits,” he added.

On people to people exchange, he said, it was an opportunity because of the longevity of the people in Japan.

“Because of the highest health standards in Japan, we can see Japanese life expectancy going up considerably. That is also posing challenges for old-age care there. We are working with CII through an NGO platform Manav Sadhan Visas Sanstha. We will train people in India including training them on the Japanese language to take care of old and needy in Japan. That will be another opportunity. CII has already been approved as a sending organization,” Prabhu added.

However, the Japanese representative organizations participating in the session raised alert on the present situation, and urged the Indian government to do more not only to control the damage inflicted due to COVID-19 pandemic but also to attract foreign investment from Japan.

Yasuyuki Murahashi, Chief Director-General, Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) said that due to the COVID19 worldwide pandemic, all of us are facing difficulties.

While sharing the current situation of the member Japanese companies in India, Ebisu Takahiro, Vice President, and Chairman, Commerce Promotion Committee, Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India (JCCII), said, “I am very sorry to say, they are now suffering various kinds of operational and financial issues because of the spread of COVID-19., and same is the situation for a lot of Indian companies.  Kenji Sugino, Secretary-General, JCCII was also present in the meeting.

Katsuo Matsumoto, Chief Representative of Japan government’s apex funding agency Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)’ said more than 1400 Japanese companies were operating in India and it was still the most attractive market for Japanese industries.

Dr. Ashok Chawla, Advisor, MEA (Indo-Japan affairs) also participated in the session.

During the Q&A Session, Suresh Prabhu responded to various queries from the Indian participants. Munish Chawla, Co-chairman, Regional Committee on Entrepreneurship & Startups, CII, and Co-Founder of a Startup Jeevitam, a Livelihood Platform said, “In light of the present crisis, we are struggling with a mindset issue of Chinese products cheaper to Indian Products. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) created history by becoming the world’s only space agency to reach Mars on its first attempt….I think if we Indians when we put our minds to a problem, we always find a solution.”

Chawla asked, “While we are encouraging manufacturing in India, can Startup partner with Japanese companies to help them navigate the Indian Manufacturing Eco System to help create products specific to Indian Market & for Global Exports which are in terms of Pricing equal or even better to Chinese?”

While replying to the question, Prabhu said, “The first-ever start-up India Japan partnership was been set up in Bangalore when I was commerce and industry minister, and I had signed the agreement with the MEITY Minister then. Bangalore is our technology hub. Regarding the manufacturing, we already have important India hub Japan working in Africa this is something which is happening earlier, and we can expand it to more geographies too.

Also read: India invites S. Korea to set up SEZs, invest in insurance, cooperative banking, healthcare