Jaitley promotes economic cooperation between India, Japan in Tokyo

"We are working overtime to cover up infrastructure deficit be it ports, airports, renewable energy, roads, smart cities, industrial corridors, townships along industrial corridor and this impetus will lead to improved manufacturing" said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addressing leading CEOs of India and Japan in Tokyo today.

Speaking about the key economic data released yesterday, Jaitley remarked "We have clocked 7.6 percent GDP growth and core sector growth has been 8.4 percent. These figures indicate a pattern. Deeper analysis shows that there are areas where global slowdown has had an impact on India but the fact that despite operating in unsupportive global environment and weak monsoon, we managed to clock this growth is a salute to public expenditure, India's private sector and FDI."

He further added that once global growth restores and monsoon is better, this trend in India will be improved upon.

"Indian economy has attained a growth rate of 7.5 percent and the prospects of double digit growth in Asia's third largest economy are not unreal with full implementation of all the reforms currently on the anvil," said Ambassador of India to Japan, Sujan R Chinoy.

Earlier in the meeting, President FICCI, Harshavardhan Neotia emphasized the need to extend two-way business co-operation and leverage potential opportunities.

He said Indo-Japan trade is mere one percent of Japan's foreign trade and while Japan is India's fourth largest foreign investor, India's share in Japan's total outward FDI is less than two percent.

Clearly, this is way below potential and we need to work towards doubling this, as set out in the Tokyo declaration.

Participating in another event organized by Japan's Institute for Indian Economic Studies (IIES), Vice President FICCI, Rashesh Shah highlighted the huge opportunity that India offers for Japanese investors.

"We are at a very exciting point in India. There is a lot of opportunity and head room for growth. At present India is a two trillion dollar economy but every eight years India's GDP will grow by a trillion dollar and per capita will grow significantly", he remarked.

"India is a long term opportunity and given its heterogeneity, while there may be issues at any point in time but one needs to focus on long term gains," added Shah.