In a bid to put the two nations’ ties on fast-track, both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have directed their respective sides in a joint statement on September 14 to work closely and establish an India-Japan Startup Hub.
The joint hub envisions serving as a platform for promotion of information exchange, business collaboration and investments between the vibrant and innovative start-up ecosystems of the two nations, according to the inked statement.
The Japanese Prime Minister also reiterated Japan’s strong support for the initiatives such as Make in India, Digital India, Skill India, Smart City, Clean India, and Startup India. Prime Minister Abe highly appreciated Prime Minister Modi’s economic reforms, especially the historic introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which facilitates ease of doing business and promotes market integration in India by realising a simple, efficient and nation-wide indirect tax system.
I would like to state that India-Japan partnership is special, strategic and global: PM @AbeShinzo
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) September 14, 2017
Apart from the statement over the joint Startup Hub, the two Prime Ministers welcomed the start of the first four Japan-India Institutes for Manufacturing (JIMs) in the States of Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu in 2017, under the Manufacturing Skill Transfer Promotion Program, and looked forward to more JIMs. They also welcomed the commencement of the first Japanese Endowed Courses (JEC) in Andhra Pradesh from September 2017. They strongly hoped that this program will introduce Japanese manufacturing practices and accelerate training of future shop floor leaders and engineers.
The growing convergence between Japan and India on strategic and economic issues has capacity to stimulate the global economy: PM Modi
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) September 14, 2017
The two Prime Ministers also welcomed the progress made in the bilateral IT and IoT cooperation through the bilateral Joint Working Group on IT and Electronics, in particular by the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) of India and IoT Acceleration Consortium (ITAC) of Japan.
With the strength of our friendship & trust, I invite more and more Japanese people and companies to come, live and work in India: PM Modi
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) September 14, 2017
Japanese Prime Minister was on a two-day visit to India for the 12th edition of India-Japan annual summit. The second day of his visit witnessed the two nations inking 15 agreements to further broad-base their strategic partnership.
