Japan to study PPP model to support its investments in India

Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) officials visiting India to explore fresh bilateral business opportunities have said that they will study Indias Public Private Partnership (PPP) model to support Japanese investments in India.

Tokyo, May 8 :Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) officials visiting India to explore fresh bilateral business opportunities have said that they will study India's Public Private Partnership (PPP) model to support Japanese investments in India.

Yasuo Hayashi, the Chairman of JETRO, stated that his organisation stood to promote business relationship between the two countries, the opening of a third office in Bangalore and a business centre to support Japanese SMEs business operations in India.

Hayashi was addressing a gathering of Japanese business delegates attending a conferenceitled "Emerging Opportunities for Private Sector in Infrastructure", organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Ministry of Finance and the India Brand Equity Foundation, as part of the Indo-Japan Friendship Year.

Addressing the gathering of over 150 Japanese business delegates, Dr D Subbarao, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, placed emphasis on the vast array of opportunities that infrastructure development offered and called upon Japan to further intensify its engagement with India in this sector.

He also stressed on the importance of PPP as the essence of infrastructure development in India.

Toshiaki Kitamura, Vice Minister for International Affairs, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) commended the infrastructure development underway in Delhi vis-a-vis the Commonwealth Games.

He said India was experiencing rapid growth, and therefore, it faced challenges, skills development of a young population, employment, inflation and development of international competitiveness being some of these.

He informed that Japan was already part of the India infrastructure development story, the recent initiative being Japan's engagement in hardware and software towards the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. He also added that Japan would study the PPP mode to support Japanese companies investment in infrastructure projects in India, specially in those that may not seem commercially viable to their companies.

Vinayak Chatterjee, Chairman, Infrastructure Committee, Confederation of Indian Industry and Chairman, Feedback Ventures, informed the audience that Japanese Yen 40,000 billion was the size of the investment opportunity for next five years in Indian infrastructure.

Arvind Mayaram, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, provided an overview of business opportunities in infrastructure, emphasising the large untapped market, which represented a huge business opportunity for the private sector.

Ashok Chawla, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, referred to the strides made by the aviation sector in India, referring to the ever-increasing new airlines, which emerging over 1992 and 2007.

He also referred to the Airport Regulatory Bill, recently approved by Parliament, which was expected to provide an iron-clad framework for the airport development regulatory environment.

J P Batra, Chairman, Railway Board, informed that an investment of 7.7 billion dollars was planned in railways infrastructure and over the next five years the investment needs were expected to be around 56 billion dollars.

The Railways, he said, was looking to mobilise a large part of the investment requirement of at least 15 billion dollars through debt and PPP.

ANI