Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has said India is committed to taking hard and difficult decisions in the long-term interest of the economy. Addressing the business community in Tokyo today, he assured Japanese industry that the long-awaited Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime will be in place by 2014. Dr.Singh told leading business honchos at the Keidanren, that the present bilateral trade of 18 billion US Dollars is not enough in view of the enormous potential that exists between the two countries.
He said as a result of a number of steps to revive the Indian economy, Government expects the growth rate in the current fiscal to be much better than in the previous year and is expected to be even better next year.
He said the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor was also making good progress with Japanese assistance and had moved from the planning to the implementation stage. A number of priority projects for implementation from the first tranche of USD 4.5 billion provided by Japan for the DMIC have been listed.
Japan has also offered financial and technical support for a detailed project report for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Railway Route.
The Prime Minister stressed that a stronger commercial partnership between the two countries should be the cornerstone of the relationship and that it would be in the strategic interest of both and contribute to wider and enduring prosperity in Asia and beyond.
Later Addressing Japan-India Association, Japan-India Parliamentary Friendship League and International Friendship Exchange Council, Prime Minister said that India and Japan are among the major actors in Indo-Pacific regions and both the countries have the greatest opportunity to chart a new course for Asia in this century.
Stressing that India’s relationship with Japan has been at the heart of India’s look east policy at the same time the Prime Minister said that Japan’s continued leadership in enterprise, technology and innovation and its ability to remain the locomotive of Asian renaissance is crucial.
the Prime Minister said that with the weight of the global economy and its drivers shifting to this region, its future will also shape the contours of the world in this century. The Prime Minister said that together India and Japan can seek a new architecture for the United Nations Security Council.
Mr. Singh said that it is our responsibility to foster a climate of peace, stability and cooperation and to lay an enduring foundation for security and prosperity. He even suggested three areas of cooperation in this regard including strengthening regional mechanisms and forums, promote wider and deeper regional economic integration and maritime security across the linked regions of the Indian and Pacific Oceans for regional and global prosperity.
The Prime Minister India has begun bilateral exercises with the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force. He said defence and security dialogue, military exercises and defence technology collaboration should grow and both countries should consult and coordinate more closely in global and regional forums.
