The Hindu Business Line : Chambers spell out steps to boost Indo-Japan trade

As the Prime Minister embarks on his three-day official visit to Japan, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce (FICCI) has offered specific suggestions to boost trade in a range of sectors such as textiles, agri-products, steel, auto components, oil and petroleum products, pharmaceuticals and agro-chemicals, software.

The chamber has also made suggestions for giving a fillip to trade in services in the areas of IT, biotechnology and medical and healthcare.

Since the Japanese economy is undergoing a restructuring by phasing out old low-value high-volume industries to high-value high-technology industries, India should establish synapses with critical sections of the Japanese knowledge bases.

For example, with Japan going into industrial engineering and designing and development of new products, our strategy should be to establish links between such institutions in the two countries. Thus, National Institute of Design can become a focal point for such a collaboration between Japan and India, according to the chamber.

For India to penetrate the Japanese market, there is an imperative need to diversify exports focusing on value-added products, according to the chamber.

For exports of automobile components, forging and castings, while there is a good market in Japan, Indian exports can make entry into the market only if they are able to establish R&D contracts with the Japanese users of these items, namely, engineering and automobile companies.

For automobile components in particular, the components are designed and developed years before the launch of specific models and products. Hence, associations with the automobile companies will have to be established at the time new models are conceived, according to the chamber.

Similarly, the CII is seeking the support of the Japanese industry for upgrading competitiveness of small and medium units. This can be done through technical collaboration for training in India, support of SME cluster activity in high-technology units, building deeper interaction between research institutes for industrial research, and helping units in quality management.

According to the CII, the next big ticket partnership is going to be on innovation in the manufacturing sector. The chamber is working with Dr Shoji Shiba, an MIT professor on Breakthrough Management & Innovation. Already 11 companies in the automotive field have enrolled on to this innovation grid programme through the CII.

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