Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani spoke in Hindi, assisted by a Japanese translator. (Express archive photo)
On a day when 10 MoUs were signed between Gujarat government and Japanese firms, chief minister Vijay Rupani said Thursday that the state government will be attracting over Rs 20000 crore of Japanese investments by 2020.
“Japanese firms have invested USD one billion (about Rs 6800 crore) in Gujarat and by 2020 they are expected to scale up the investments to USD three billion. Whatever help is required from our side, we will provide it to them… We have made provisions to ensure that more investments from Japan come here,” said Rupani while inaugurating a business support center of Japanese External Trade Organisation (JETRO) at Ahmedabad.
This is the fifth such office in the country after Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Bengaluru. Rupani also pointed out various initiatives that the state government has provided to Japanese industries in Gujarat which includes setting up of the first Japanese Industrial Park at Mandal in Ahmedabad district. “GIDC (Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation) has acquired 273 hectares and kept it reserved for setting up a vendor park for Maruti Suzuki at Bhagapura (in Ahmedabad district). We have also started a Japanese Industrial Township at Khoraj near Sanand where 1750 acres of land has been kept reserved,” Rupani added at the event where the chairman and CEO of JETRO, Hiroyuki Ishige was present.
The CM who spoke in Hindi, assisted by a Japanese translator hoped that the Japanese firms will help attract employment opportunities in the state. JETRO first opened a project office in Ahmedabad in 2013 which was meant to help Japanese firms set up business within the Japanese industrial park at Mandal. JETRO’s new business support centre is designed to support Japanese firms, especially SMEs to set up business in Gujarat. The centre provides temporary office space for the firms to launch their operations in Gujarat. It also provides consultations and helps arrange meetings with representatives of the state government.
Ishige, the JETRO chief said that the 15 MOUs signed in the September 2017 between Japanese firms and the state government and the 10 MOUs signed today amount to Rs 38.4 billion (Rs 3840 crore) and will help create employment for more than 6000 persons. Though the details of the MoUs signed on Thursday were not shared “due to confidentiality agreement”, he later said that most of them belonged to the automotive sector.
Taking about the business interest shown by different state governments including Gujarat, Ishige said that 15 state governments have visited Japan in the last four years “India is a big deal for us at Jetro,” he said adding that 50 Japanese companies are currently active in Gujarat and the new business centre will help in increasing these numbers. Talking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the JETRO official said, “Introducing the solvency and bankruptcy code and GST are few of his winners.”