India, Japan ink pacts on bullet train, nuclear energy
India and Japan on Saturday inked more than a dozen of key agreements in the areas including bullet train, defence, civil nuclear energy and healthcare and expressed their commitment to further bilateral economic cooperation. Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is on a three-day visit to India, held bilateral talks with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed a range of domestic, economic and global matters of mutual interest. “The memorandum we signed on civil nuclear energy cooperation is more than just an agreement for commerce and clean energy,” Modi said addressing the media after the meeting. The agreement in defence was aimed at enhancing defence and security cooperation between the two nations by exchanging and co-developing defence equipment and technology. The two prime ministers laid a special emphasis on developing India’s railway network. The Indian Ministry of Railways and Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) signed an agreement to cooperate in rail sector in sharing information and best practices and carrying out joint research. India’s Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) and Japan Railway Technical Research Institute (JRTRI) also signed an MoU to cooperate in the area of safety in train operation in developing advanced maintenance techniques and environment friendly technologies. An agreement was also signed between Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan on Medical Products Regulation Dialogue and Cooperation Framework to jointly cooperate in conducting a constructive dialogue on raw materials for pharmaceutical use, biological products, medical devices, quasi-drugs and cosmetic products. With the agreement on Amendment Protocol of Double Taxation Avoidance, India and Japan vowed to stimulate effective exchange of banking information. The pact will also help in reducing tax avoidance and evasion, thus enabling assistance in collection of taxes between the two countries. “Our future-oriented partnership raises our collaboration to a new level in areas of infrastructure, manufacturing and high technology, including advanced transportation systems, civil nuclear energy, solar power generation, space, biotechnology, rare earths and advanced materials,” Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. “The two prime ministers welcomed the signing of the memorandum of cooperation on introduction of Japan’s High Speed Railways (HSR) technologies (the Shinkansen system) to Mumbai-Ahmedabad route,” the ministry said. The Japanese Prime Minister also hailed Modi’s ‘Make in India’, ‘Digital India’, ‘Skill India’, ‘Clean India’ and ‘Smart City’ initiatives and expressed his expectation on further enhancement of reform measures. He also assured India of deepening Japanese cooperation in the Make-in-India policy. The two countries reaffirmed their intention to develop “Japan Industrial Townships (JITs)” in India, with investment incentive for certain companies. Earlier, addressing the India-Japan Business Leaders Forum, the Indian Prime Minister said that the Japanese government has dedicated about $12 billion fund for 'Make in India' initiative. He said that Japan is willing to import vehicles from India. “Japanese company will manufacture here and export it to Japan,” he added. Recalling his visit to Japan last year and the commitment of $35 billion of investment made by Japan, Modi said that the figure had surprised many at that time, but today, within a short time-span, “unimaginable progress” had been made, and the contours of this investment were beginning to get visible on the ground.
December 12, 2015 | 05:00pm IST
to success.