Japan, UK commit to development

Japan has decided to be associated with the development of Chennai, Ahmedabad and Varanasi as smart cities, the country’s Ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu said in New Delhi.

Japan is quite interested in urban development initiatives of the Indian Government and decided to be a partner, he said during his meeting with Minister of Urban Development M.Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi on Jan 5, 2017.

Responding to Naidu’ observation about the need for speedy action, the Japanese envoy said “We would like to match the action oriented approach of the Government”.

Meanwhile, the High Commissioner of United Kingdom, Dominic Asquith, also met Naidu and discussed converting into action the MoU signed between the two countries during the recent visit of British Prime Minister to India Teresa May, on cooperation in urban development sector.

He said institutionalizing Government to Government cooperation for smart city development has huge potential.

So far, leading countries have come forward to be associated with development of 15 smart cities. These include: United States Trade Development Agency (USTDA) –Visakhapatnam, Ajmer and Allahabad, UK-Pune, Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) and Indore, France-Chandigarh, Puducherry and Nagpur and Germany –Bhubaneswar, Coimbattore and Kochi. fii-news.com