By IANS
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe Tuesday launched the India-Japan Business Leaders Forum to give a new thrust to growing economic ties between the two countries.
“At the end of the day, it is business leaders like you who will give meaning and substance to our joint vision of a unique economic engagement between India and Japan,” Manmohan Singh told the 243-strong business delegation from Japan.
“Japan and India have entered into a new era under their strategic partnership,” Abe told the meeting, which he attended immediately upon his arrival at the Air Force Station here.
Recollecting his visit to Tokyo last December, Manmohan Singh said he and Prime Minister Abe had decided that, “the time had come for our two countries to raise our ties to the level of a global and strategic partnership”.
“I sincerely believe that such an engagement, between Asia’s largest democracy and its most developed country, will create an arc of advantage and prosperity through out Asia,” Manmohan Singh added.
The corporate executives who have come with Abe are from some of the top companies of Japan like Toyota Motors Corp, Canon, Honda, Mitsui, Hitachi and others big banner names in global business.
“The Japanese automobile industries like Toyota, Honda and Suzuki have located parts of their global production chains in India. We need more such models and examples of mutually beneficial collaboration in other sectors,” Manmohan Singh said.
For far too long, he said, the economic engagement between India and Japan has lagged behind their political ties and that an opportune time had come to make up for lost time.
“We are discussing some very big flagship bilateral projects such as the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and the Rail Freight Corridors. These projects will open up huge opportunities for the Japanese industry,” he said.
“I hope that you will actively partner the government in making a success of these gigantic initiatives.”
Manmohan Singh said Japanese companies were known for taking a long-term view of their businesses and said India had much to learn from the corporate philosophy and practice followed in Japan.
“We are keen to learn from you about how to build an environmentally sensitive industry, corporate involvement in skill development, socially responsible advertising and many other issues that today’s managers have to grapple with,” he said.