India and Japan can partner using their strengths of Indian expertise in software and Japanese expertise in hardware, and explore the upcoming markets. India is keen that Japan does not look at India as a short term trading partner, but as a long term partner. For this end, dedicated teams between the two countries would be required. This was stated by Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Communications and IT in a meeting with Toshimitsu Motegi, Japanese Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry, in Japan. He also informed the Japanese minister that it is intended to have a nodal officer in the Ministry of C&IT as a contact person for issues between the two countries, and expressed the hope that Japan could also appoint such an officer. Top companies can even come to India and set up testing centres for standards for 4G and 5G for the world, he said.
Sibal hoped that Japan and India should jointly develop standards, for example for 4G and for 5G. He informed the Japanese minister that India is already setting up testing labs. He also spoke about the incentives provided in the National Policy on Electronics, especially with regard to the Electronic Manufacturing Clusters.
Speaking about the concerns that are appearing in the press regarding PMA, Sibal said that a foreign company which manufactures in India will qualify as a domestic manufacturer. He said that these guidelines are being brought to encourage electronics manufacture in India, to address India’s import bill on the account of electronics becoming too high.
Speaking at the Japan External Trade Organisation(JETRO) seminar, the minister pointed out that India has to move towards the manufacturing sector contributing a much larger share of its economy, as by 2030, the largest number of people coming into the workforce will be Indians. He also said that a paradigm shift is occurring as regards providing services and goods in the global economic structure—it will become increasingly difficult to provide them long distance. He invited Japan to set up manufacturing in India, and partner with India for accessing the large and growing Indian market as well as the global market.
The minister stressed the need to invest in avionics, automotive electronics, medical electronics, solar energy and LED sectors, as these are the growing sectors in the coming years. He also spoke about having put in place incentive schemes for the electronic manufacturing sector—including provision of duty drawback and provision of incentives in the proposed electronics manufacturing clusters, 10 of which are proposed to come up this year. He also informed the participants in the seminar that as part of the policy, it is proposed to have a 28 million workforce by2020. He said that as 100 person FDI is allowed in the skill development sector, Japanese companies could set up skill training institutes, so that they would not need to train workers after they have been hired.
