India seeks expanded economic ties with Japan

Mumbai: India has sought to expand co-operation with a technologically advanced Japan through a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, as well as stepped-up trade.

Addressing the Japanese Diet (Parliament), visiting prime minister Manmohan Singh underscored the need for the two countries to build relations on a sound economic foundation.

He said trade and investment ties between the two "civilisational neighbours" were well below potential. In fact, it was three times lower than China''s trade with India, while Korea''s trade with India was almost equal to Japan''s trade with India, he added.

"Prime minister (Shinzo) Abe and I will launch negotiations that will lead to a comprehensive economic partnership agreement to encourage greater flows of trade, investment and technology between our two countries," he said.

He cited the dynamics of Japanese car maker Suzuki in the Indian car market, which over two decades ago partnered the Indian government to float Maruti.

He assured Japanese investors of an investment-friendly economic environment and invited Japanese companies to expand their presence in India.

India, he said, is a profitable investment destination, which will require fund inflows to the tune of $500 billion over the next five years. He asked Japanese companies to seize the opportunity and assured them of addressing "all their legitimate concerns." Japanese companies have a "historic status'''' of being the most important business partners of India - participating in both private and public-private partnership. The prime minister also outlined various investment-support measures undertaken by his government like creating provision for grant assistance through a specially created ''viability gap funding''.