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India, Japan to get CECA in
place by end of the year
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Objective is to double trade
to USD 10 billion in 3 years
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India invites Japan to invest
in BPO, KPO, EPO
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India said that it anticipates a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement
(CECA) to expand trade with Japan and enhance bilateral cooperation in
pharmaceutical and manufacturing to ensure doubling bilateral trade to $10
billion in three years.
Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath told an India-Japan Business Summit
that he is "very happy to notice the substantial progress made in preparing a
roadmap for the CECA as per the recommendations of our joint study group." He
thanked Japanese assistance for “developing the rail freight corridor between
Mumbai and Delhi and Delhi and Kolkata as also their contribution in building
Delhi Metro.” However, he critiqued that "If we look into the statistics of
trade and investments between both countries, they do not do justice to the
real potential.” He called on the business community to “work towards widening
our trade basket" and asked them not to “wait for the finalization of the CECA."
Nath specifically invited Japanese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to tap
the business opportunities in India to take advantage of Business Process
Outsourcing (BPO), Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO), and Employment Process
Outsourcing (EPO) operations in India to reduce their cost and enhance their
global competitiveness.
India is expected to generate USD 500 billion worth of investment
opportunities in the next five years in major economic sectors and the
infrastructure sector alone had the potential to absorb $250 billion.
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