Dec 15, 2015
Japan on Saturday committed itself to billions of dollars of investments in India, including a $12-billion loan at negligible interest for the much touted "Bullet Train" and another $12 billion for " Make in India" initiative.
"Today, we have scaled new summits in our shared journey," a visibly pleased Modi told the media after his delegation-level talks with the visiting side, led by Japanese PM Shinzo Abe. The Indian side was particularly elated with the package for the high-speed train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, as it comes with an interest of a mere 0.1 %, a duration of as many as 50 years and a moratorium on repayments up to 15 years. ET had first reported that two sides will sign an agreement on high-speed railway during Abe's trip.
A highlight of Indo-Japan economic partnership will be the decision to import cars from India to Japan. Modi said that for the first time Japan will import cars from India. "Maruti Suzuki will manufacture here... Japanese company will manufacture here and export it to Japan," he said. Modi also thanked Abe for the "Japan-India Make-in-India Special Finance Facility" of up to 1.5 trillion yen ($12 billion approximately) to promote investments from the Asian giant, mainly in infrastructure that need long-gestation funding. This will feed into the $35 billion that Japan had announced last year at the annual summit as ODA for Japanese public and private investments in India.
Modi said India will extend to the Japanese people visa on arrival from March 1 next year. Similarly, Abe said in the next five years Japan would like 10,000 Indian talents to visit Japan under frameworks such as students exchange and IT training.
Source: Economic Times