The Japanese Prime Minister, Mr. Shinzo Abe, has favored early conclusion of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) to boost India-Japan economic relations and triple bilateral trade to US$ 20 billion in the next three years.
Addressing a business meeting organized joint by FICCI, CII and ASSOCHAM, Mr. Abe underlined the need for a bilateral currency swap agreement and called upon the private sector in both countries to assist their respective governments in meeting the challenge of climate change that Japan and India have decided to tackle at the global level.
Mr. Abe reiterated his government's commitment to assist India in infrastructure development, particularly the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata Dedicated Freight Corridors and Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor.
Japan's ministry of finance and the Reserve Bank of India have already completed two rounds of negotiations on the issue. Once the agreement is finalised, both the countries would be able swap foreign exchange reserves to counter speculative moves on their currencies.
In other words, Japan will accept rupees and give dollars to India up to a stipulated limit, and similarly India will take yen and send dollars to Japan if the need arises. For India, it will be a major safeguard even if the forex reserves come down in future.
The Japanese Prime Minister said, India-Japan relations have the largest potential for development amongst any two nations in the world. This potential is seen by companies in Japan as 200 top executives from major Japanese companies have joined his delegation, he said.
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