By IANS,
New Delhi : Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will visit Japan July 22-27 and is expected to meet Suzuki Motor’s top executives on the automobile major’s plans to set up production facilities in his state.
Modi’s visit will “further strengthen the ties between Gujarat and Japan in the context of the global strategic partnership which Japan and India enjoy”, the Japanese embassy in India said Friday.
Modi will be accompanied by senior government officials and business representatives, it said in a statement.
The chief minister will meet ministers, MPs, governors and business leaders in Japan. He will also attend investment promotion seminars in Tokyo, Hamamatsu and Nagoya.
Modi’s expected meeting with top executives of Suzuki Motor comes at a time when Maruti-Suzuki plant in Manesar in Haryana is witnessing tense industrial relations.
A senior executive was killed and many people injured in a fire in the plant Wednesday after thousands of workers locked the plant’s gates trapping officials inside. Two Japanese nationals were also injured.
Maruti Suzuki is pinning its expansion hopes on a new plant in Gujarat.
It plans to set up a plant with an installed capacity of two million units per annum in Mehsana. It envisages two sites with an area of 600 acres each — one for the plant and the other to be allotted to components and ancillary vendors.
Modi had earlier convinced Tata Group to shift its Nano car factory to Sanand after the company was unable to run its plant in Singur in West Bengal due to an agitation by farmers.