The Hindu Business Line : After Friendship Year, what?

The current year of 2007, declared as the India-Japan Friendship Year, is coming to a close. Such declarations have meaning only when they lead to putting in place concrete, tangible frameworks of action to get the most out of the synergy and symbiosis resulting from any purposeful friendship between countries.

A lot has been said about India and Japan coming closer and exploiting to the maximum the hitherto inadequately explored vast potential for mutually beneficial partnerships and programmes on a variety of fronts, such as business, commerce and industry, science and technology, energy, sports, tourism, culture, security and the wide range of possibilities that exist for cooperation at the regional and global levels. Unfortunately, though, in comparison with the immense scope for broadening and deepening the relations between the two countries and the influence they can wield and the impact they can make by acting in tandem, the actual achievements can only be said to be meagre. Why is this so?

The answer lies in a simple, single sentence: Neither country has been able to unhook itself from its past hang-ups. Thanks to its colonial moorings, India is happy cohabiting with Europe, Britain and the US on the political, economic, cultural, psychological and emotional planes.

Japan, on the other hand, despite its two cities being nearly erased out of the map by atomic bombs dropped by the US and the subsequent humiliating experiences of the US occupation, prefers to harmonise its policies and approaches with those of the US.

Thus, one country looks to the West and the other to the East, and the twain, in the process, have been missing out on many opportunities of meshing their interests to their best advantage.

Composite body to draw up a blueprint

All the figures that are cited in official PR handouts with great hoopla are nowhere near what could have been accomplished. For instance, much has been made of bilateral trade between the two countries steadily rising and possibly reaching $10 billion in 2007.

Viewed against $4 billion in 2002, $6.8 billion in 2005 and $8.6 billion in 2006, there has no doubt been a steady rise but it has also been agonisingly slow with no preparations evident to bring about a quantum leap.

Similarly, Japan’s cumulative foreign direct investment in India up to March 2007 has been $2.7 billion which is only 5.44 per cent of the total inflow of FDI. Is this all there is to show for all these years of efforts, especially with 475 Japanese business establishments operating in India and around 70 Indian companies in Japan?

The main problem in giving a fillip to India-Japan ties has been the absence of any specific targets under various categories within given time frames to be attained by both countries.

Much was expected of the Japan-India Business Leaders’ Forum of which the Co-Chairs were Mr Fujio Mitarari, Chairman and CEO, Canon Inc., and Mr Mukesh D. Ambani, CMD of Reliance Industries.

Its joint proposal submitted on August 22, 2007, on the eve of the Japanese Prime Minister’s visit to India, is a dismal disappointment, as it only deals with vague generalities without pegging down both countries to measurable benchmarks of performance within stated periods.

Thus, the India-Japan Friendship Year closes with only nebulous hopes and pious platitudes and without a definitive charter providing a set of targets and time tables set before policy-makers and economic players in both countries for implementation.

At least now, the chambers of commerce and industry, think-tanks and the civil societies of the two countries should establish a composite body to take stock of the situation and hammer out a viable blueprint for implementation.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

More Stories on : Foreign Trade | Foreign Relations | Offhand

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Tuning up with Europe

Towards a ‘weightless’ world

US credit squeeze and India

After Friendship Year, what?

Taking a leaf out of Europe’s education book

In search of the flexible employer

Sops to exporters