Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar told Japanese businesses to be patient while investing in India. (File)
Japanese businesses should not expect the same returns from doing business in India, as the ones they are used to from doing business in other countries, foreign secretary S Jaishankar said today. Instead he advised companies to mold their expectations to India's ground realities.
"India is India," he told heads of various Japanese businesses, adding that "a more educate, aware and localised investment approach would yield better results in India."
"I won't defend everything which goes right or wrong. But it is important for Japanese companies to understand that their expectations must be grounded in the Indian reality," he said.
The foreign secretary's comments come at a time when several Japanese companies - like Maruti and Toyota - are facing labour issues in India, even leading to temporary closure of a plant near Bengaluru.
He reassured Japanese businesses that the government valued their partnership.
"In India's growth story, Japan has a very unique role," he said.
"I am not sure whether Japanese understand how Maruti-Suzuki changed India's mindset. And entire generation grew-up with that change. The next change came with the metro rail project. Today we expect the High-Speed Railway project to emerge as the third phase in changing India's mindset," he said.
He also accepted that India had failed to fully exploit the opportunities that became available after India and Japan signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in 2013. However, he said, things had changed since.
"We have gone out of the way to make special carve-out for Japan including business visa arrangement which is unique. It is important that today we aggressively push investments," he said.
The bilateral trade between India and Japan stood at 14.51 billion dollars in 2015-16. India has received 20.96 billion dollars in Foreign Direct Investment from Japan between April 2000 and March 2016.