Ashwani Kumar calls for exponential leap in the Indo-Japan Relations

New Delhi, Feb 18 (UNI) Minister of State for Industry, Dr Ashwani Kumar today called for the need to expand the level of India-Japan economic engagement.

Addressing at JIBCC business summit sponsored by FICCI in Tokyo, Dr Kumar, stated that the present share of Japan in India's global trade was a mere 2.3 per cent in 2006-07.

He reminded the Japanese Business leaders, of India's plans to spend seven-eight per cent of the GDP into development of infrastructure in the country which in monetary terms will be 450 billion dollars out of which 150 billion dollars will have to come from the private sectors including foreign investors.

Dr Kumar invited Japanese investment in the development of Indian Power Sector, Civil Aviation, Logistics, Biotechnology, Nano-technology and also in the Agro Processing and Clean technology.

Speaking with reference to the DMIC and Delhi Mumbai Freight Corridor, he said that these two projects are the most ambitious projects ever undertaken by India and that Japan being a partner in the project is a step forward in forging a meaningful Special Economic Partnership between the two countries.

The project involves a capital outlay of 90 billion dollars and is expected to generate three million additional jobs.

Japanese companies, he said are likely to invest five billion dollars in the DMIC over the next three years, said an official release issued here today.

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