India is seeking US$500bn-worth of investment over the next five years, of which US$320bn will be allocated to infrastructure development alone, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). To support these needs, the CII is looking towards Japan.
"There is a vast potential for high level Japanese investment in infrastructure, power and telecom," announced CII this week.
The comments come as India and Japan head towards the next round of talks under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) at the end of this month.
Negotiations for CEPA began in January 2007, and so far there have been five rounds of talks.
With the discussions about to resume, CII has proposed that bilateral trade should be based on foreign direct investment rather than official development assistance. It calls for Japanese investors to look towards India's special economic zones to establish manufacturing facilities.
The confederation has also expressed concern over India's declining exports to Japan, and increase of trade deficit by 60.53% in 2006-2007. It is looking to eliminate technical barriers to trade and tariff liberalisation.
From April 2000 to October 2007, Japan’s contribution to overall FDI in India stood at US$1.89bn, accounting for 4.56% of total amount invested.
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