The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized an Interactive Session with Ambassador of Japan to India H.E Kenji Hiramatsu on 'Japan - India : Areas of Cooperation' with special focus on West Bengal' on Saturday, 10th August 2019 at The Bengal Chamber Premises.

The Ambassador graced the Session along with Mr. Masayuki Taga, Consul General of Japan to India. Mr. Indrajit Sen, President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Mr. Deb A Mukherjee, Senior Vice President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Mr. Subhodip Ghosh, Director General, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry were also present in the programme.

Mr. Masayuki Taga expressed his sincere thanks to The Bengal Chamber to invite the Ambassador in the Chamber. Mr. Taga mentioned that the Chamber extended its kind support to organize the Japan Session in The Bengal Global Business Summit, held in the month of February 2019. He also mentioned this was the first formal visit of the Ambassador to the Chamber. Mr. Taga, during his speech, stated that 19 Japanese companies and 209 Japanese establishments are here in West Bengal. Japan was keen on seeing the increase in people to people connect in this region and invited people from this region to visit Japan.

The Ambassador H. E. Kenji Hiramatsu, during his address, mentioned that Japan was keen to see increasing people- to- people connect with the Eastern Region of India and invited investors from West Bengal to Japan. He also stated that the Japanese companies operating in India were being given incentives from the Northern states and such incentives from West Bengal could encourage more companies here.

The Ambassador said that a new momentum has been added to economic partnership between Japan and India while shared security and defence cooperation is rapidly catching up with the already robust economic partnership.

The Ambassador mentioned that Skill, Waste Management and SME Sector are the possible fields for joint collaboration between the two countries for investment in West Bengal. Japan is looking for more platforms to establish business to business connects in West Bengal. He also stated that Japan is already working in Infrastructure project jointly with India in Bangladesh and has been very keen to continue the same since West Bengal is the gateway to other Eastern States and South East Asia. Japan is also looking to support the opening of more Japanese language centres in India to the tune of 1000 in next five years in India where trained teachers would be provided from Japan that would increase Indian employment in Japanese companies.

The Ambassador said that with Japanese firm Kawasaki Rikuso Transportation Company's investment in setting up temperature controlled solar powered warehouses for Agri storage in West Bengal, there has been an increasing interest from both sides for business exchanges and alliances in the eastern part of India. The other major Japanese companies operating in West Bengal include Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery, Nippai Shalimar Feeds, Nomura Research Institute Financial Technologies.