JETRO Topics
India-Japan Business Partnership Seminar in India
March 2018
JETRO held the India-Japan Business Partnership Seminar, which focused on the IoT filed, in Hyderabad on March 7 and Bengaluru on March 8. This is the third year in a row for JETRO to hold a seminar in India promoting FDI into Japan. It is the first one to be held in Hyderabad and the second in Bengaluru. Each seminar was joined by approximately 100 people and gained much attention from Indian media outlets as well.
Hyderabad: Home to IT and pharmaceutical companies
Hyderabad, a central city of Telangana—a new state in India established in 2014, is well known as home to development sites of the world's top five IT companies, such as Google and Amazon, as well as to pharmaceuticals and aviation-related companies. In the luncheon meeting before the seminar, a presentation was delivered by Kirti Ganorkar, Executive Vice President of Sun Pharma—India’s largest pharmaceutical company and the world’s fourth largest—and a board member of Sun Pharma Japan Ltd. Touching on the fact that Japan’s generics market is the third largest following that of the US and Europe, he stated that it is important to understand the local culture and apply appropriate quality control measures suitable for Japanese demand as standards are significantly high in the country.
In his opening remarks, V Rajanna, Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Telangana, spoke on the expansion of partnership between India and Japan in various fields including high-speed railway, energy, manufacturing and security, and he stressed that this trend will need to continue in the future. Following him, KT Rama Rao; Minister for IT, Industries, MA and UD, NRI Affairs of Telangana State; made an appeal for the enhancement of collaboration between India and Japan, expressing his respect for Japan successfully establishing its presence as an economic power in the world despite scarce natural resources, limited land and frequent natural disasters. “Indian companies,” he declared, “have much to learn from the product quality and spirit of Japan.”
Kirti Ganorkar, Executive Vice President of Sun Pharma and a board member of Sun Pharma Japan
Shigeki Maeda, Executive Vice President of JETRO and KT Rama Rao, Minister for IT, Industries, MA and UD, NRI Affairs of Government of Telangana
Advocating India-Japan IT collaboration
Gagan Sabharwal, Senior Director of the Global Trade Department of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), explained from the perspective of his expertise that collaboration between the two countries in the IoT field will lead to a win-win relationship. Shigeki Maeda, Executive Vice President of JETRO, took the podium to make a call for Indian companies to expand business in Japan through partnerships with Japanese companies as well as to invest in Japan. He expressed his belief that a collaboration between Indian companies, with their cutting-edge IT technologies, and Japanese companies, with advantages in their world-leading manufacturing technologies, will lead to global business given the recent demand for advanced IT technologies across various industries as the IoT and Industry 4.0 have expanded.
From Satyam-Venture Engineering Services Pvt. Ltd., an Indian company active in Japan, presentations were given by CEO Rao S. Vadlamudi and Kishore Mocherla, Deputy General Manager of Business Development for Japan. They listed the reasons for why the company, which provides design engineering services geared toward finished car manufacturers and tire makers, set up a business site in Hiroshima: the local presence of their customer Mazda, accessibility to the Chinese and Korean markets, the gradual increase of Indian companies in Japan and the fact that the city is home to an accumulation of manufacturers.
Shigeki Maeda, Executive Vice President of JETRO
Bengaluru: India’s Silicon Valley
The seminar was also held in the IT hub of Bengaluru, in cooperation with the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC). Secretary General Raju Bhatnagar of BCIC remarked in his opening greeting how BCIC and JETRO have maintained a cordial relationship over a long period of time and that he was much honored to be able to jointly hold the seminar with JETRO. Japan’s Consul-General in Bengaluru, Takayuki Kitagawa, introduced measures by the Japanese government to promote the acceptance of highly skilled foreign human resources, such as the "Japanese Green Card for Highly Skilled Foreign Professionals,” and expressed Japan’s stance of welcoming Indian companies with open arms.
A presentation was made by MA Mohamed Saliya, Managing Director of iWave Systems Technologies Pvt. Ltd., an IoT-related software and hardware developer. The company jointly developed a remote control system for signals with Nippon Signal Co., Ltd., and Mr. Saliya expressed his hope that the system would be installed into the high-speed railway between Mumbai and Ahmadabad. Director and Co-Founder Smitha Rao of Utthunga Technologies Pvt. Ltd., an industrial automation software services and solutions provider company, spoke on the importance of understanding Japanese culture and business practices based on his experience in doing business with Japanese companies. In a Q&A session, numerous inquiries were given by Indian companies, indicating great interest in entering the Japanese market and working with Japanese companies.
Both in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, Director Shinzo Nakano of the Japan Venture Capital Association encouraged Indian-affiliated start-ups to enter Japan by presenting on the latest trends in the Japanese start-up community through statistics, such as on the year-by-year increase of investment in Japan by venture capitalists and the growing number of initial public offerings. In Bengaluru, a city attracting global attention as a hub of IT-related start-ups similar to America’s Silicon Valley, Israel and the UK, a networking meeting for Indian and Japanese venture capitalists was held in the morning. Mr. Nakano and General Partner Nao Murakami of Incubate Fund India introduced the portfolios of Japanese start-ups in which they have invested to Indian venture capitalists.
Networking meeting for Indian and Japanese venture capitalists
Q&A session
Outline of seminar in Hyderabad
| Date and time | Wednesday, March 7, 2018, 13:00 - 16:05 (Lunch reception from 13:00 to 14:00) |
|---|---|
| Venue | Westin Hyderabad Mindspace |
| Organizer | Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) |
| Co-organizer | Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) |
| Sponsor | Sponsor Consulate-General of Japan in Chennai, Government of Telangana |
| Participants | 93 companies |
| Program: Seminar |
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Outline
| Date and time |
Thursday, march 8, 2018 Networking between Indian and Japanese venture capitalists: 10:00 – 11:30 Seminar: 13:00 – 16:10 (lunch reception: 13:00 – 14:00) |
|---|---|
| Venue | ITC Windsor, Bengaluru |
| Organizer | Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) |
| Co-organizer | Bangalore Chamber Of Industry And Commerce (BCIC) |
| Sponsor | Consulate-General of Japan in Bengaluru |
| Participants | 104 companies |
| Program: Seminar |
|
| Program: Networking between Indian and Japanese venture capitalists |
|
