Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Ambassador of Japan to India, Satoshi Suzuki, chaired a joint video conference organized by JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) on Monday in which Japan-Haryana connect was emphasised. 35 top Japanese investors and CEOs of Japanese companies participated in the video conference.
Describing Haryana as a favourite destination for foreign investors, a large number of leading Japanese companies including Honda, Maruti Suzuki, Canon, Daiken, NEC Technologies, Mitsui, Unicharm, Munjal Kiriu who already have their bases in Haryana evinced keen interest in making further investments in Haryana through expanding their industrial units.
Khattar recalled that though most of them had met recently on February 15 over Japan Haryana Golf meet yet it seems it was in a different era. He also shared various new initiatives taken by the State Government to woo foreign investors including allotment of land to manufacturing units on lease basis and upcoming Enterprises Promotion Policy -2020 which would be the best policy in the country.
The Chief Minister said the adverse human, social, fiscal and economic impacts of the Lock Down measures unfolded every day. Like all governments across the world we tried our best to mitigate these. While sharing something that has been uniquely local in Haryana, he said that while we remained focused on ensuring no one slept hungry and on reducing the spread of the virus, we never saw this crisis as only a crisis but as a great opportunity to reform.
Khattar said that from March to May, the State Government has set up 3 brand new Departments namely Department of MSMEs; Department of Housing for All and Department of Citizen Resources Information. Also, addressing the concern of high land prices, we have added a new investor friendly element of land allotment for manufacturing units on lease basis. He said that Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has announced an economic stimulus equal to 10 per cent of our GDP, adding that we are not looking at incremental reforms but a quantum leap. He said that Haryana will not be found wanting on any of four aspects of this package; Land, Labour, Liquidity and Laws.
Chief Minister said that some investors were talking about VIP Countries (Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines). My team at State is now focusing not just on the investor satisfaction, but on customer delight.
He said that we in Haryana are not just limited to B to B (Business to Business) or G to B (Government to Business) or G to G (Government to Government) relationship. Haryana is the land of Gita and we believe in H to H relationship that is Heart to Heart connect, the Chief Minister asserted.
He said Haryana is witnessing large expression of investment interests coming from Japanese companies, therefore, it becomes all the more important for us to maintain a continuous and effective dialogue. He said that the State Government has recently established separate departments for Foreign Cooperation, MSME sector for their help and continued support. He advised the Japanese community to think about establishing the supply chain and MSME with research and innovation in Haryana. He also sought their continued preference and investments for the State while assuring all support of histeam.
The CEO of the leading Japanese Companies thanked Chief Minister Khattar for taking this proactive step of interacting with them through video conference and said that this step would go a long way in further strengthening the industrial and economic relationship between Japan and India and particularly with Haryana.
Among those present in the meeting included Principal Secretary to Chief Minister and Chairman HSIIDC Rajesh Khullar, Additional Chief Secretary, Power Department T.C Gupta, Principal Secretary, Industries A.K Singh, Managing Director, HSIIDC Anurag Agarwal and Principal Secretary, Labour Vineet Garg.