India-Japan Business Forum pushes for enhanced bilateral cooperation across many sectors
Pune, Sep 1 (BVI)–After a gap of 7 years, the India-Japan Business Leaders’ Forum has held a meeting, with Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Forge Baba Kalyani co-chairing the session where emphasis was laid on enhancing bilateral cooperation across several sectors, including green energy, electric mobility, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, digital technology, and electronics.
At the meeting, held in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo a couple of days back, Kalyani emphasized the strategic importance of the India-Japan partnership, describing it as a resilient and vital force for global economic security and sustainable growth, particularly against the backdrop of ongoing trade uncertainties.
He highlighted several medium-term focus areas to further strengthen the partnership and stressed the need to build greater resilience in global value chains by leveraging India and Japan’s complementary strengths.
Kalyani also welcome increased Japanese investments in India across banking, financial services, and the establishment of global capability centres.
He underlined the importance of co-creating and co-developing solutions for Society 5.0, the vision of a technology-driven, human-centered society.
He also called for the creation of joint standard-setting bodies to drive mutual recognition agreements across sectors, and emphasized the significance of skill mobility and human exchange, noting India’s demographic advantage in providing a young and skilled workforce to support Japan’s evolving needs.
Kalyani and his Japanese Co-Chair Tsutsui-san, Chairman of Keidanren, submitted a Joint Forum Report to the two Prime Ministers.
The report outlines recommendations and opportunities to take the India-Japan partnership to the next level.
The Joint Statement outlined a series of forward-looking initiatives designed to enhance strategic autonomy, strengthen cooperation, and diversify bilateral economic ties for sustainable growth.
These include:
- Revising the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA),
- Amending the tax treaty, and supporting India’s potential accession to the CPTPP;
- Launching an India-Japan Private-Sector Dialogue on Economic Security;
- Advancing decarbonisation through clean energy technologies and the Joint Crediting Mechanism.
- Strengthen cooperation across semiconductors, smart manufacturing, and AI
- Promoting SME and start-up collaborations
- Expanding partnerships in third-country markets like Africa, and promote greater talent and cultural exchange.
- Both sides also discussed bilateral cooperation in the space sector as well as potential for collaboration in film, animation, gaming, and extended reality (XR). (BVI)
