The Hindu Business Line : Indo-Japan Centre to focus on strengthening trade ties

It will evolve into a chamber of commerce and industry, the centre's President, Mr R. Veeramani, said. At a seminar on `Japan-India Economic Cooperation: Problems and prospects', he said that the change is needed to encourage Japanese investments into India. It will soon take a delegation of industrialists to Japan.

India and Japan share a common bond, Buddhism. This relationship should be taken forward for the mutual benefit of both countries to cover economic cooperation.

Japanese investors should exploit the potential presented by the special economic zones. Mr Veeramani, who is the Chairman of the Export Promotion Council for Special Economic Zones, said that Japan could build an industrial city in South India.

The former Executive Director of the Asian Development Bank, Mr C. Ramachandran, said changes in the international political and economic scene have prompted India to look more towards the Asia Pacific region. Japan too was focussing on Asia, particularly India, he said.

Trade between India and Japan was less than one per cent of Japan's global trade. Though Japan's investment in the country was among the top of the foreign direct investments, it was just a fraction of its investments elsewhere. For instance, there were over 120 Japanese companies in the country but 2,500 in China.

India needs to speed up its reform process. It needs to make serious improvements in various areas of governance, he said.

The Indo-Japan Centre officials urged the Tamil Nadu Government to expedite the setting up of a taskforce to look at measures to encourage commercial ventures with Japan.

The Government had been on the verge of setting up such a taskforce, but somehow the proposal seems to have been put on hold, he said.