Japan-India Eminent Persons' Group Report

Bilateral relations between Japan and India are founded on the solid base of history, culture, spirituality, common interests and democratic belief. The EPG appreciates the increase in interaction at the official levels on a variety of important issues of mutual interest. The EPG believes that its report recommending specific proposals will contribute constructively to the growth of bilateral relations.

Japan and India are major powers in Asia. The establishment of "Global Partnership", by the Prime Ministers of Japan and India is a welcome development. Both nations need to ensure stability in the Asian region and strengthen cooperation in political and security issues. The EPG recognizes that official dialogue on a number of important political and security issues has commenced and is under way. The EPG feels that such dialogues should be extended to areas which have not seen close cooperation, such as the war against terrorism and energy issue, including security of the sea lanes which carry oil and gas to both the countries. The EPG believes that in the context of the post September 11, 2001 global perspective, India and Japan can contribute to global partnership with other major nations by enhancing dialogue and understanding of each other's national security needs.

Economic relations between India and Japan have steadily improved during the last decade. Nevertheless, they have not still reached their enormous potential in trade, investment, industrial and IT collaboration. Japan is suffering from a prolonged recession and is seeking solutions to restructure its financial sector among other changes. India is aiming to accelerate its second generation reforms, but is slow in developing its infrastructure, or attracting foreign investment, including from Japan. Despite the past misunderstandings and the lack of communications which hampered greater economic and trade cooperation, the EPG believes that a change in the respective mind sets and way of thinking will remove the obstacles in the way of closer collaboration. The two countries and their business communities should identify and communicate their respective strengths, rather than lamenting weaknesses that exist in their respective economies. By taking advantage of these strengths the two countries can identify new areas of business and industrial collaboration in the globalized environment of the 21st century. One example is the fusion of the Indian IT industry and Japan's conventional manufacturing industry, to pursue economic growth in both the countries. Other areas to explore include feasibility of joint R&D activities to utilize Indian skills, collaboration in bio-technology and bio-information industry and joint collaboration and projects in third countries.

To pursue these and other ideas, for which awareness at the decision making levels in business community and Government are necessary, the EPG has compiled a set of specific proposals for the further interaction between the business communities, to complement the existing governmental dialogue.

The EPG believes that an important area of relationship that has been ignored in the past is the people to people contacts. There is very limited exchange of students, scholars, academics, journalists, tourists and NGOs between our two countries. Although Japan and India are advanced in scientific research, the interactions among the scientific communities is limited. In order to activate and strengthen human resource exchanges, it is necessary to institutionalize schemes of exchange programs for students, academics, scientists and journalists. Without an institutionalized system of exchanges, there can be no sustainable, mutually beneficial human resource interaction. The EPG believes that the proposals they have developed in this report will help speed up these exchanges.

This report is the result of sincere and intensive interaction between the two sides, held in a healthy and frank environment. The two Co-chairmen appreciate the contribution of the members on both sides and hope that the mandate given to them by the Prime Ministers has been adequately discharged.

The EPG expresses the hope that serious efforts would be made to expeditiously implement their proposals.