Northeastern Indians look like us, we feel comfortable with them and we need them: Japan, Korea, other Asian countries
NEW DELHI. People of the north-eastern states of India are the top choice for Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and other developed Asian countries when it comes to sourcing manpower.
A huge number of companies from these countries are looking forward to sourcing skilled people for their projects in their country of origin and in India.
Japan has signed MoU with India on the Technical Intern Training Program (TITP) for employing skilled people from India in 14 sectors.
“North-eastern people of India look like us; they share looks closer to us. And they are the perfect choice in the caregiving sector. Japanese people especially the elders feel more comfortable with them than the people from any other states of India,” said Tomio Isogai, the Short Term Consultant, National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC), advisor on Indo-Japanese relations and former managing director Sharp India Limited.
Tomio Isogai said this while making a presentation ‘Look East, Act Global” during the Japan Invest North East Committee meeting held at ASSOCHAM, New Delhi recently.
While quoting a report, he said Japanese hugely fell short of manpower in the field of nursing care, restaurant, construction, hotels, agriculture, food & beverage production, and material fabrication.
Aju Japanese Hotels in Neemrana (Rajasthan), Gurgaon (Haryana) and Ahemdabad (Gujarat) employ over 150 youths from northeastern states as according to company director Prakash Yadav the Japanese clients felt more comfortable with these people as compared to others.
Similarly, South Korea which is bullish about its trade prospects in India seems equally interested in sourcing people from north-eastern states here, and its companies are investing heavily in the region.
Also on the cultural front, Korea is trying to get closer to the north-eastern people by using soft power ways and means such as Korean music and drama. K-pop and K-Drama were increasingly making their presence felt to lure youngsters towards Korean culture.
Earlier in 2017, the Japan Embassy and Indian Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) had also formed the Japan India Coordination Forum for the development of eight north-eastern states in the region.
However, Sikkim, Nagaland, Mizoram, Assam, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya fall short of the expectation level of these countries for the poor skills sets they currently possess.
The Way Forward:
With this in mind, the India-Japan Business Promotion Council of Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has constituted ‘Japan Invest North East Development Committee’ to ensure human resource development through skilling & training in collaboration with the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India (JCCII).
On October 11, the committee held its first meeting in New Delhi. The committee has representation from the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), JCCII, Japan Embassy, NEC Technologies and from Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) and National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC).
The committee would seek financial support from JICA as the project requires a huge investment.
While paying stress on the requirement of health care development and skilling of manpower to start with, Rahul Sharma, chairman, India-Japan Business Promotion Council, Assocham said it was very much required to develop North-east Region as Japanese Investment here can be a win-win situation for all.
Rahul Sharma advised NEC to set the target of training 1000 people of the north-eastern states in the first year, 3000 in the second year and 5000 in the subsequent year.
He also advised NEC to go state-wise while opening the centers and emulate the successful models in later ones.
Rahul Sharma also laid stress on the importance of understanding the psychology of youths being trained as working in Japan is more about mannerism and adapting to the lifestyle there.
He also discussed with Kenji SUGINO, Secretary-General from JCCII to take up the matter together with the Japanese Government to include India in the list of those nine countries that are exempted to take any special approval for sending the skilled manpower to Japan in 14 different trades.
The inclusion of India in this will be phenomenal in driving this project of training and skilling NE youth successful. It was also mutually agreed that a small delegation should immediately meet the Embassy of Japan to update upon this project.
Other stakeholders to push skilling in NE region:
Ms. Deepti Kaur from NEC shared an illustrative plan on opening and skilling and language training centers.
Dr. Palin from Shija Hospitals that had set up first even Healthcity in Manipur in 2017 mentioned the scarcity of doctors, trained nurses, and other medical staff. He stressed on the need for medical facilities on the border and how upgrading the medical facilities can lead to increased medical tourism.
Dr. Prabir De from RIS shared his views on how Japan’s growing inclination to invest in Bangladesh can act as a catalyst for investment and subsequently development in the North East region too.
He laid stress on smooth visa processing as it will directly facilitate mutual exchange between two countries. He also emphasized the requirement of skill development in areas like trade facilitation, corridor management, logistics, and financial services with the partnership with Japanese companies and associations as Trilateral Highway is aimed to be completed by 2021.
Ms. Monalisa Dash, Additional Resident Commissioner, Sikkim shared her views of requirement on skilling and training across various sectors, she emphasized on the need of upskilling the youth of North East region and equipping them with the right set of technical and not technical skills to make them employable.
J C Pegu, retired IRS, and advisor of the NE committee, has been working extensively to develop North East Region. Being from the North East region of India, owing to his experience and parentage for this region he is well aware of real challenge and ground reality. He shared his experience to ensure that the task taken by this committee reaches the last mile.
Others who attended the meeting were Piyush Sinha, Deputy Managing Director, NEC Technologies India, Sunil Tyagi, Zeus Law, and Prakash Yadav, Aju Hotels.
