TOKYO: It isn’t just high growth and an expanding market that make India an attractive destination for investors. Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Monday added India’s long list of FTAs and the possibility of Japanese companies using the preferential tariffs to set up a base to it and looking at it as a gateway to the world.And, he topped it up by positioning India as a safe base for Japanese companies as data is protected, intellectual property is secure and where an entrepreneur does not “go missing only to be found as a professor in some other country”. The last three were seen as a dig at China, amid indications that companies, including Google, are looking to shift a part of their mobile manufacturing facility in what has come to be known as “China+1” strategy.“India is not a plus one country. India stands on its own merits as a trusted partner. We don’t steal anybody’s technology, we don’t copy anyone’s intellectual property products and bring it into the market. In India you have a growing middle class, the fastest growing major economy in the globe and most importantly the youthful talent,” Goyal said. He also signalled that govt was willing to relax rules, provided it does not result in imports from “one country”, which is not conducive for fair trading practices and often supplies goods at predatory pricing.While Japan has been pushing for deeper ties with countries such as India, the recent trade tussle with China has added to the urgency.The minister also made a strong case for India as a good fit to address issues that Japan was facing. “One can clearly see that for an economy like Japan, which has very good technologies but not enough people, which has excellent business practices but not enough market, India can be an excellent partner, which provides economies of scale with a large domestic market and India which has opened its doors to international engagement with several FTAs... we are a trusted partner in global supply chains and for Japan to enjoy competitive advantage over other countries, working with India, will give it a natural edge.”As he courted multiple investors, he asserted that govt was willing to address individual concerns that Japanese companies may have and cited two cases on Monday itself when he spoke to officials in India to find a solution to the issues flagged by a semiconductor equipment manufacturer and another by an auto components player.During another meeting, Goyal urged Japanese steel makers to buy India-made steel for local requirements instead of importing it into the country.He also said that India is negotiating trade deals with at least eight-nine trading partners that together account for another $15 trillion of GDP. The country’s FTAs would eventually cover about 75% of global trade.
