Kishida to further develop Japan-India Strategic and Global Partnership
The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has laid the foundation stones of two key projects of the Suzuki group which is investing Rs.18,300 crores to manufacture vehicles and Advance Chemistry Cell batteries for Electric Vehicles.
The Suzuki Motor Gujarat Electric Vehicle Battery Manufacturing Facility will be set up at Hansalpur, Gujarat, and Maruti Suzuki’s upcoming vehicle manufacturing facility will be at Kharkhoda, Haryana.
The Kharkhoda vehicle manufacturing facility will have the potential to manufacture 10 lakh passenger vehicles per year, making it one of the largest passenger vehicle manufacturing facilities at a single site in the world. The first phase of the project will be set up with an investment of over Rs.11,000 crores.
The Japanese heavyweight manufacturer is also investing Rs.7,300 crore in the Suzuki Motor Gujarat Electric Vehicle Battery Manufacturing Facility at Hansalpur.
The investments were announced on 28 Aug 2022 at the commemoration of 40 years of Suzuki in India at Gandhinagar.
“Together with Prime Minister Modi, I am determined to undertake the efforts to further develop the ‘Japan-India Strategic and Global Partnership’ and to realize a Free and Open Indo Pacific,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a video message to the commemoration.
Applauding Suzuki investments, Modi said that many other Japanese companies have expressed their interest to invest in India.
He also underlined the importance of this year as India and Japan mark 70 years of their relationship.
Modi said, “The association of Suzuki with the families of India is now 40 years strong”.
“The success of Maruti-Suzuki also signifies the strong India-Japan partnership. In the last eight years, these relations between our two countries have reached new heights.
“Today, from the bullet train in Gujarat-Maharashtra to the Rudraksh centre in Banaras in UP, many development projects are examples of India-Japan friendship.”
“Our efforts always carried seriousness and respect for Japan, that is why about 125 Japanese companies along with Suzuki are operating in Gujarat.”
Modi highlighted that the JETRO-run support centre in Ahmedabad is providing plug-and-play facilities to many companies while the Japan India Institutes for Manufacturing are training many people.
Modi also informed that work is being carried out at a fast pace to introduce PLI schemes in automobile and automobile components manufacturing.
A lot of policy decisions have also been taken to prepare a robust electric vehicle charging infrastructure, he added.
“A battery swapping policy has been introduced in the 2022 Financial Budget. It is a certainty that with the strengthening of supply, demand and ecosystem, the EV sector is going to progress,” he said. fiinews.com
