M A I N   N E W S

PM seeks Japan’s help on N-power
A.J Philip
Tribune News Service

The Prime Minister's appeal assumes significance as Japan is a key member of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group and it was highly critical of Pokharan II. His speech was heard with rapt attention. There were as many as 22 times when the members clapped and gave him a standing ovation. Every time he mentioned something common to India and Japan, the Japanese MPs, who were present in large numbers, seemed to lap it up.

Dr Manmohan Singh recalled that India and Japan were working together to revitalise and reform the United Nations and the UN Security Council making them more relevant to our times. Both the countries had a vital stake in the enhanced effectiveness of the UN and its various organs. “To that end we must intensify our cooperation for an orderly and equitable management of the interdependence of nations in the increasingly globalised world we live in”, he said.

The Prime Minister felt that India and Japan should play their rightful and commensurate role in the emerging international order. Strong ties between the two countries would be a major factor in building an open and inclusive Asia and in enhancing peace and stability in the region.

He visualised that Indo-Japanese partnership had the potential to create an arc of advantage and prosperity across Asia, laying the foundation for the creation of an Asian Economic Community. He invited Japanese companies to expand their presence in India.

The Prime Minister lamented the fact that India-Japan trade and investment relations were below potential. “In contrast, India’s trade with both China and South Korea is booming and grew last year at around 40 per cent with both countries. China’s trade with India is nearly three times India’s trade with Japan and Korea’s trade with India is almost equal to Japan’s trade with India”.

Dr Manmohan Singh said the most important area in which India and Japan could develop partnership was the “knowledge economy”. In the field of science and technology, there was need to accelerate the pace of cooperation in the growth sectors of the future such as nano-technology, bio-technology, life sciences and information and communication technologies. “We must exploit synergies in the development of Indian software and Japanese hardware”.

He said Indian economy had been growing at an average growth of 6 per cent for 15 years. In recent years, the growth rate has accelerated to 8 per cent with investment rate attaining 30 per cent of the GDP. He referred to the emergence of India as an important player in knowledge-based sectors like IT, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals and the massive investments being made in infrastructure development.

The Prime Minister recalled the help Japan extended to India in dealing with an unprecedented economic crisis the nation faced in 1991 and the fact that India was the first and largest recipient of Japan’s Overseas Development Assistance.

On a lighter vein he mentioned that he was happy that a Tamil film dubbed in Japanese, “Odori Maharaja”, in which Rajnikant played the lead role, became popular in Japan and Indian children were delighted to see Japan’s own “Odori Asimo” - the dancing robot. While the number of Indian restaurants was increasing in Japan, the Japanese dishes — ‘sushi’ and ‘tempura’ — were becoming popular in India. He invited both young and old Japanese to visit India and see the many splendours of ancient and modern India.

Among those who called on the Prime Minister and had discussions with him were the Finance, Foreign and Trade ministers of Japan. He and Ms Gursharan Kaur had a 20-minute audience with the Emperor and the Empress at the Imperial Palace. Earlier, he was given a ceremonial welcome at the residence of the Japanese Prime Minister.

Dr Manmohan Singh had a meeting with representatives of Indian industry where suggestions were sought from them to give India-Japan business relations a big boost. The Confederation of Indian Industry reopened its Japan office here today.

In the evening, inaugurating the Festival of India where his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe and Mrs Akie Abe were present, the Prime Minister said the festival would bring out the vibrancy of India’s culture in all its diversity, the youthful dynamism of contemporary India’s free and open society and the great transformation that was taking place in India’s economy.

In his address, Mr Abe said the Japanese were touched by the speech the Indian Prime Minister made in the Diet. He said the relations between the two countries would emerge as the most successful bilateral relationship in the world.

Japan evinces interest in importing food items
A.J.Philip
Tribune News Service

Tokyo, December 14
Japan has shown interest in importing food items from India like marine products, fruits and vegetables.

This was stated by Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath while talking to the Indian journalists accompanying the Prime Minister here this
afternoon.

The minister had a meeting with the Agriculture Minister of Japan when the subject of meeting some of Japan's food requirements from India cropped up.

Mr Kamal Nath said India was not bothered about the problem of subsidy the Japanese rice farmers were getting from their government. In any case, the price
of rice was very high in Japan and the Japanese did not eat the kind of rice grown in India.

He said India had been supporting Japan's stand in the World Trade Organisation negotiations. The two countries did not have any conflicting interests.

The minister who is actively engaged in discussions with key Japanese ministers and officials and assisting the Prime Minister in his engagements said the Japanese wanted to make up for the slowdown in their engagement with countries in Asia at a time when a major component of world economic activity shifted to the Asian continent.

He said Japan could solve the problem of its shrinking workforce by tapping the large workforce in India. The Japanese had expressed concern over the lack of infrastructure in India. It was not possible to develop state-of-the-art infrastructure all of a sudden.

Solutions like developing a rail freight corridor to the Mumbai-Delhi and Delhi-Kolkata industrial corridors were being worked out to address the problem of infrastructure.

The idea was to enable smoothen shipping of goods manufactured by Japanese companies in India to the ports and from there to the outside world.

He said the Special Economic Zones India was planning to set up too had a role to play in this regard.