The 12th Indo-Japan annual summit held at Gandhinagar in Gujarat is a Historic one in more than one way and will play a vital role in the emergence of India and connect the region of South East Asia with India-Nepal-Bhutan and link us to the Eastern Africa - Asia Africa Growth Corridor and enable economic growth.
The 12th Indo-Japan annual summit held at Gandhinagar in Gujarat is a Historic one in more than one way as reflected in actions and the memorandum of understanding to set up India Japan Act East Forum with an aim to marry India’s Act East Policy with Japan’s Free and Open Asia-Pacific strategy. The forum will enhance connectivity and promote developmental projects in India’s Northeast region in an efficient and effective manner; Japan has a historic connection to the Northeast and is among the few countries that India has allowed a presence in the eight landlocked states which are the country’s gateway to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations members.
India and Japan on Thursday also signed a document on Japanese loan and aid for highway development in the Northeast that can complement India's connectivity initiatives in Bangladesh, Myanmar and beyond, besides BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal) and BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Motor Vehicle Agreements.
Japan will extend a loan of Rs 2,239 crore to India for ‘North East Road Network Connectivity Improvement Project’ to improve the National Highway 40 (NH-40) and construct a bypass on NH-54 in the Northeast. The project is expected to contribute to the improvement of the intra-regional and international connectivity through regional economic development.
Japan has cooperated with a variety of development projects in the Northeast, ranging from connectivity infrastructures such as roads and electricity, water supply and sewage, forest resource management and biodiversity. Further, there is a great potential for people-to-people and cultural exchanges between Japan and the Northeast, given Japan’s historical connection with the region. Against this background, Japan and India last month launched the Coordination Forum in order to explore and expand cooperation in the north-eastern region.
Japan is looking to build a cultural link with the region which physically connects India to Southeast Asia. Japan is keen to expand infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia, along with India; it is exploring opportunities to develop projects in ASEAN. This is part of Indo-Japan corridor conceived last year for the Indo-Pacific region that also extends to Eastern Africa under Asia Africa Growth Corridor. The India Japan partnership aided the USA will play a major role in the words growth story in the coming days and enable India to emerge as an influencer.
Japan will provide a soft loan of about Rs 90,000 crore (14 Billion USD) at a minuscule interest rate of 0.1 percent over 50 years for development of the Ahmedabad–Mumbai Shinkansen Rail project. The repayment of the loan is to begin after 15 years of receiving the loan. Generally, any such loan, even from other multilateral or bilateral development financing institutions, would cost between 3-7 percent with a repayment period of 20-30 years. India is getting the loan at close to almost zero cost. This saves India’s financial resources, as more than 80 percent of the project cost is being funded by Japan. It is for the first time that an infrastructure project of this size and magnitude is being funded on such favorable terms to India. India will also see job creation through “localized manufacture and “transfer of technology” as twin, complementary objectives that will boost growth. The estimates are that the high-speed Ahmedabad – Mumbai rail corridor will have a daily ridership of around 36,000 in 2023 and the project is likely to generate direct employment for about 20,000 workers.
The Project will give a boost to Human Resource Development through capability development that will equip the people engaged in this project be equipped to take up construction of more such projects in India. The new areas where construction skills would be developed are ballast-less track, undersea tunneling.The High-Speed Rail Training Institute is being developed at Vadodara will be a major center for new technology training. This institute will be functional by the end of 2020 and have facilities to train about 4,000 staff in the next three years, who will then be utilized for operation and maintenance. They will also serve as a backbone for the development of other high-speed corridors in India. In addition, 300 young officials of the Indian Railways are being trained in Japan to give them exposure in high-speed track technology. As these young professionals absorb the latest technologies, they will then be able to manage other high-speed corridors which are under consideration. India is getting cutting-edge operational technology in totality. The Shinkansen technology is renowned for its reliability and safety. The train delay record of Shinkansen is less than a minute with zero fatalities. Thus, the project is set to provide reliable and comfortable service with high standards of safety. The technology regarding disaster predictions and prevention will also be acquired as part of the project.
The Ahmedabad–Mumbai Shinkansen rail project along with the Japanese sponsored Industrial Corridor running across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra are going to bring in much-needed foreign direct investment, this impact business opportunities across the region. The Shinkansen will give growth imputes to the economic growth of cities like Baroda, Surat and other towns of the region. Mumbai the business capital of India will better connect and the project infrastructure milestone for the city.
Thus the projects initiated will play a major role in India’s economic growth and developing our Human capability. India and Japan has embarked on a journey that promises to be a game changer in the current Geo-Political Scenario with collaboration in Military, Security, Technology and Economic ties and History will remember the role played by the two leaders of our two great nations to make this happen at the 12th Indo-Japan annual summit held at Gandhinagar in Gujarat.