Modi invites more Japanese investment, 4 townships to come up

With India and Japan declaring that the key to global economic progress lies in the development of both the Indian and Pacific Ocean regions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday invited more Japanese investments in India even as agreements were announced for setting up four Japanese industrial townships in India.

"I invite more and more Japanese to come live and work in India," Modi said in his address at the India-Japan Business Plenary here in the presence of Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is on a two-day official visit to India.

"Today, four locations have been announced... Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu... for setting up Japanese industrial townships," he said while also noting that the number of Japanese companies working in India had grown substantially over the years. 

Modi referred to the Ahmedabad-Mumbai high speed rail project, the ground-breaking ceremony for which earlier in the day in Ahmedabad was attended by both Prime Ministers 

Following delegation-level talks between the Prime Ministers on Thursday morning, an agreement was signed between the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to accelerate and facilitate Japanese investments in India.

In his address at the business plenary earlier, Abe said the "key to global economic development in the future is the development of the two seas... Indian Ocean and the Pacific, which would touch a wide region extending from Asia to Africa." 

Abe said that Japan's state-of-the-art technology combined with "India's vast talent pool" would enable both to have the competitive edge in the global marketplace. 

Abe also said that carmaker Suzuki, which has a 2.5 lakh annual capacity in Gujarat, will increase its overall production capacity in the state to 7.5 lakh units annually.

Maruti's Japanese partner Suzuki will also set up lithium-ion battery unit at Hansalpur in Gujarat in partnership with Denso and Toshiba, which will start production by 2020. The partners will invest $180 million in the plant to produce batteries for electric vehicles. 

At the business plenary, it was announced that 15 Japanese companies had entered into agreements to invest in Gujarat.

Modi announced that India was the highest recipient of Japanese official development assistance (ODI) last year