Japan Keen To Fund Core Projects

Japan has asked India to access its funding arm, the Overseas Development Agency (ODA) and the multilateral financial institutions for funds for infrastructure development, saying the private sector could only play a limited role in meeting these requirements. The enormous cost involved and rather slow return from infrastructure projects, in particular highways and bridges, render them less attractive for private investment and make it imperative for the government to bear major responsibility for such tasks, says the Japanese Ambassador to India, Sakutaro Tanino. As it has been doing in the past, India could continue to source external assistance through bilateral facilities like ODA and through the facilities of multilateral financial institutions, he says in an article carried in the latest issue of Japan Economic Report.