As the global bilateral cooperation between India and Japan continues at multiple levels and the two countries also becoming part of an important grouping of countries including India, the US, Japan and Australia in the all-important Quad platforms to serve each other's economic interest, India has sought Japan's better participation in the recently announced production linked incentive (PLI) scheme.
The secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Guruprasad Mohapatra, on Thursday said that India was looking forward to greater participation in its recently announced production linked incentive (PLI) schemes from Japan.
“These are precisely the areas where Japan is known globally. We look forward to a lot of interest from Japan to participate in the PLI scheme,” Mohapatra said during an event organised by industry chamber FICCI and the India-Japan Business Cooperation Committee.
Mohapatra said that Japan was giving special incentives to its companies for manufacturing and India's PLI schemes will help New Delhi attract investments from Tokyo and that discussions have started under the India-Japan Industrial Competitiveness Partnership that seeks to enhance India's industrial competitiveness.
To improve overall economic sentiment India has recently announced 13 PLI schemes following an economic lull due to the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. The scheme looks to encourage large companies to ramp up their manufacturing base and boost exports. The total incentives under the PLI schemes, covering sectors such as telecom, electronics, auto parts, pharma, food processing, medical devices, white goods and textiles, are pegged at Rs 1.97 lakh crore over a five-year period.
The government has also set up an Empowered Group of secretaries to fast track and handhold such investments, and a single window to help investors will be launched on April 15.
Explaining that the Covid-19 pandemic led to a fall in exports to Japan and disrupted the supply chains of Japanese companies, leading to the adoption of de-risking strategies by companies across the globe, Mohapatra claimed that Japan has offered a special incentive package to Japanese companies and this provides India with a unique opportunity to attract fresh Japanese investments.
As per government data Japan is the fifth-largest contributor to the foreign direct investment (FDI) equity inflows into India, at around $34.1 billion from April 2000 to September 2020. Mohapatra said welcoming and raising the automatic level of FDI in defence production and insurance are the two major changes that India has made and the country is one of the most open FDI economies in the world.
On the India-Japan Industrial Competitiveness Partnership, the secretary said that discussions have started, joint working groups have been formed and “we are making steady progress.”
Mohapatra further stressed that the India-Japan investment promotion partnership focuses on the next generation infrastructure, connectivity, transport systems, smart cities, rejuvenation of rivers, manufacturing, clean energy, skill development and water security.
