With recession tremors rocking economies around the world, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is understood to have asked a Japanese business delegation last week to set up manufacturing plants in India. Officials who were part of the meeting on October 22, said for the first time the Japanese business delegation was represented by “manufacturing” arms of companies, and not the conventional “trading” wings. Among the Japanese business leaders present at the meeting were Canon chairman Mitarai Fujio, Toyota Motors Corporation’s chairman Cho Fujio, Mitsubushi Corp chairman Sasaki Mikio and Nippon Steel’s Mimura Akio among others.Sources said the PM expressed interest in attracting state-of-the-art technology from Japan at lower costs. Japanese manufacturers too have realised that their Korean competitors are doing well in India, especially in the white goods market, due to their low pricing. “So while the Japanese companies might offer superior technology, they are unable to cut costs as they are not manufacturing in India,” an official source said. Addressing the businessmen, the PM said bilateral trade between India and Japan has grown to reach $10 billion in 2006-07. “At the current rate of growth, we can hope to achieve our target of $20 billion by 2010. However, he pointed out that the increase in India’s bilateral trade with China in the past year alone was more than its total trade with Japan.
